Border Patrol Update

I previously wrote (here and here) about two U.S. Border Patrol agents who were sentenced to prison for shooting a drug smuggling illegal alien in the butt. The whole story sounded extremely fishy, including the Department of Homeland Security giving the drug smuggler immunity to testify against the agents.

I thought there must be something more to this story. Today I found out that there is more to this story, only it wasn't anything that I expected to hear.

Last September 26, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General's office met with four Republican congressmen from Texas to discuss the case and DHS's investigation. Accoring to WorldNetDaily (see here), the following evidential claims were made at that meeting in regards to the Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean:

• Ramos and Compean confessed to knowingly shooting at an unarmed suspect. Again – they claim the two agents knew he was unarmed when they fired their weapons.
• Ramos and Compean stated during the interrogation that they did not believe the suspect was a threat to them at the time of the shooting.
• Ramos and Compean stated that day they "wanted to shoot a Mexican."
• Ramos and Compean were belligerent to investigators.
• Ramos and Compean destroyed evidence and lied to investigators.

Yesterday, DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinner testified before the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee (see story here). Texas representative John Culberson was questioning Skinner about the September 26 meeting with DHS officials. When Culberson asked Skinner about the investigative reports to back up their claims, which supposedly included eye-witness accounts and signed affidavits, Skinner admitted that DHS in fact did not have any such reports:

"The person who told you that misinformed you," Skinner reportedly replied.

It took DHS four months of failing to produce the reports for the congressmen before ultimately admitting that the reports never existed. You can be sure we haven't heard the last of this, especially with this news coming on the heels of a report of agent Ramos being assaulted in prison by illegal aliens. The story is still fishy - why would DHS go to such extremes to prosecute these men and lie about evidence? What's the story with the drug smuggler? Why would DHS grant him immunity to testify against two U.S. Border Patrol agents for shooting him in the butt?