Remember this headline? "2 Border Patrol agents face 20 years in prison"

A major national news story from the Summer of 2006 and the whole affair stirred incredible emotion from all who took the time to read about the goings on. Generally an emotion of betrayal of the Border Patrol agents from those who are bent toward very stiff immagration law enforcement.

The news media, both print and broadcast as well as internet sources all had wildly varying versions of what actually(?) happened in the Ignacio Ramos / Jose Compean fiasco. Frankly I found myself falling into their "Trusted News Source" reporting trap in believing the two agents were being railroaded: Simply because this information was not made public or the media refused to report it or report it accurately.

The two Mexican smugglers were made out to be "heroes" in some instances and the Border Patrol Agents as "Bureaucratic Victims" in other instances. Neither of which is the truth!! The news media in general hyped the hell out of this case, skewing the actual facts to suit their headlines.

Now don't misunderstand: I'm NOT a bleedin' heart liberal by any means nor do I believe every piece of rhetoric that comes from the governmental bureaucracies as The Gospel According to G.W. but, I DO believe we as citizens of the United States need, MUST HAVE some strong, enforceable immigration laws: Enforceable is the keyword. And, I am NOT opposed to using reasonable force to enforce those laws.

What I am getting at in this piece is the total lack of "Accurate Reporting" in this case!

I stumbled upon the U.S. Department of Justice's web site where, buried a few directories below root were two PDF documents that actually contained the truth in the matter as statements of U. S. Attorney, Johnny Sutton. These documents/statements were not made public until 2007.

Statement dated 4-25-2007 :: Statement dated 1-17-2007 USDOJ Site :: Compean-Ramos Press Releases and trial transcripts

At any rate, the U.S. Attorney's office didn't do themselves any favors by not publicizing this information more or earlier.