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Border Patrol Agent on Glenn Beck Show*Transcript*
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
One of the convicted Border Patrol agents and his lawyer were on Glenn Beck's show tonight. They will be on his radio show tomorrow. Check here to see where you can hear the show. Here's a transcript from the tv show tonight. Note: all the wording before the interview is Glenn Beck speaking. Transcript taken from here
And while we`re at the subject of getting something done, here`s one. The border immigration debate that, oh, you guys in Washington are just sitting there with no progress, "We care about this." Yes, right. Let me give you at home another side of this story, the real story on just what a mess our border is.
Let me take you back to February 2005. Two U.S. border agents are in pursuit of a suspected Mexican drug smuggler. The smuggler ditches his van near a canal and begins to flee on foot. One of the agents hears a gunshot and sees the other agent down.
Just then, he sees the suspect through the dust ahead of him. The suspect turns around, and the agent sees what he thinks is a gun. The agent fires; the suspect flees. Two agents return back to the road, search the van. Inside the van, 700 pounds of pot. Two weeks later, a Department of Homeland Security investigator tracks down the suspect in Mexico.
This would be a happy ending, if it wasn`t that the guy was tracking him down not to arrest him, but instead to offer the drug smuggler full immunity in exchange for testifying against the border agents who shot at him. Turns out the smuggler had been hit by the bullet. Yes, yes, so they needed to treat him here in America and give him all kinds of medical money for it.
Now the agents have been convicted on charges of assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, and civil rights violations. The minimum sentence these guys can get is 10 years. The recommendation? Twenty years.
But as if all of this just wasn`t a happy enough package for you under the Christmas tree, listen to this: The assistant U.S. attorney told the jury that the Border Patrol agents are not even allowed to pursue fleeing suspects. And they also better not exceed the speed limit unless they get the supervisor`s approval first. And I`m not kidding.
What are we doing down on the border? Don`t sit there in Washington and tell me you`re serious about national security and protecting the border when you`re handcuffing the people on the front line every step of the way. This is a war on the border. You know, and like any war, except Vietnam, you give our soldiers the tools and the weapons they need to win it.
Ignacio Ramos and his attorney, Stephen Peters, join us now telephonically. That means "on the phone." Stephen...
STEPHEN PETERS, ATTORNEY FOR BORDER AGENT: Yes.
BECK: ... what happened with the judge? How did the jury actually come to this sentence or this conclusion?
PETERS: Well, I think government prosecutors can be very persuasive when they want to be. And they convinced the jury that the drug smuggler was telling the truth when he said he didn`t have a gun and that Mr. Ramos was lying when he said he thought he saw a gun.
BECK: Well, wait a minute. Hang on just a second. The guy`s a drug smuggler. He was running away from officers. I mean, don`t they have a right to say, "Hey, stop it"? If the guy happens to see a gun, whether he had one or not, what difference does it make?
PETERS: Well, it matters if Mr. Ramos thought that he had a gun, and if he did, then he would have been justified in shooting.
BECK: Right.
PETERS: The government didn`t believe Mr. Ramos; they chose to believe the drug smuggler.
BECK: Did the jury know this guy had 800 or 700 pounds of pot in the van?
PETERS: Well, the jury found that out. The government went to some effort to prevent the jury from finding out about it, but the judge let it in.
BECK: I understand this guy was just nabbed again for trying to smuggle more drugs.
PETERS: That I know nothing about.
BECK: Ignacio, how do you get up in the morning and think, "This is America"? How do you do that?
IGNACIO RAMOS, CONVICTED BORDER PATROL AGENT: It`s been very hard, and I felt abandoned for a very long time. It`s been hard to live with.
BECK: You`re facing the possibility of 20 years in prison. I know that, you know, you don`t -- I don`t even want to ask any question that might hurt you in the sentence process. So let me ask you this: The guys that you know that were working with you on the border, how apt are they to actually do anything to stop anybody on the border after they see you getting 20 years?
RAMOS: I couldn`t tell you. I just know it probably can`t be easy for them right now.
BECK: Steve, is it true? I have heard that the reason why we even found out about any of this is because the drug smuggler`s sister had a contact inside Border Patrol...
PETERS: The drug smuggler`s mother was a very close friend of a relative of another Border Patrol agent in Arizona. And the Border Patrol agent in Arizona contacted higher-ups in the Border Patrol and got this started.
BECK: And said what? "My son is a drug smuggler, and your people were shooting at him, and they`re not supposed to"? Is that what happened, basically?
PETERS: The drug smuggler was injured pretty badly. And, you know, the initial report that was given to the government was kind of twisted and didn`t exactly tell all the facts. And I think that what happened was that the government didn`t do a very good job initially of investigating the case.
BECK: All right. I`ve got to tell you, if the guy was hurt badly, I`d say, "One for the good guys." Stephen and Ignacio, thank you so much.
And while we`re at the subject of getting something done, here`s one. The border immigration debate that, oh, you guys in Washington are just sitting there with no progress, "We care about this." Yes, right. Let me give you at home another side of this story, the real story on just what a mess our border is.
Let me take you back to February 2005. Two U.S. border agents are in pursuit of a suspected Mexican drug smuggler. The smuggler ditches his van near a canal and begins to flee on foot. One of the agents hears a gunshot and sees the other agent down.
Just then, he sees the suspect through the dust ahead of him. The suspect turns around, and the agent sees what he thinks is a gun. The agent fires; the suspect flees. Two agents return back to the road, search the van. Inside the van, 700 pounds of pot. Two weeks later, a Department of Homeland Security investigator tracks down the suspect in Mexico.
This would be a happy ending, if it wasn`t that the guy was tracking him down not to arrest him, but instead to offer the drug smuggler full immunity in exchange for testifying against the border agents who shot at him. Turns out the smuggler had been hit by the bullet. Yes, yes, so they needed to treat him here in America and give him all kinds of medical money for it.
Now the agents have been convicted on charges of assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, and civil rights violations. The minimum sentence these guys can get is 10 years. The recommendation? Twenty years.
But as if all of this just wasn`t a happy enough package for you under the Christmas tree, listen to this: The assistant U.S. attorney told the jury that the Border Patrol agents are not even allowed to pursue fleeing suspects. And they also better not exceed the speed limit unless they get the supervisor`s approval first. And I`m not kidding.
What are we doing down on the border? Don`t sit there in Washington and tell me you`re serious about national security and protecting the border when you`re handcuffing the people on the front line every step of the way. This is a war on the border. You know, and like any war, except Vietnam, you give our soldiers the tools and the weapons they need to win it.
Ignacio Ramos and his attorney, Stephen Peters, join us now telephonically. That means "on the phone." Stephen...
STEPHEN PETERS, ATTORNEY FOR BORDER AGENT: Yes.
BECK: ... what happened with the judge? How did the jury actually come to this sentence or this conclusion?
PETERS: Well, I think government prosecutors can be very persuasive when they want to be. And they convinced the jury that the drug smuggler was telling the truth when he said he didn`t have a gun and that Mr. Ramos was lying when he said he thought he saw a gun.
BECK: Well, wait a minute. Hang on just a second. The guy`s a drug smuggler. He was running away from officers. I mean, don`t they have a right to say, "Hey, stop it"? If the guy happens to see a gun, whether he had one or not, what difference does it make?
PETERS: Well, it matters if Mr. Ramos thought that he had a gun, and if he did, then he would have been justified in shooting.
BECK: Right.
PETERS: The government didn`t believe Mr. Ramos; they chose to believe the drug smuggler.
BECK: Did the jury know this guy had 800 or 700 pounds of pot in the van?
PETERS: Well, the jury found that out. The government went to some effort to prevent the jury from finding out about it, but the judge let it in.
BECK: I understand this guy was just nabbed again for trying to smuggle more drugs.
PETERS: That I know nothing about.
BECK: Ignacio, how do you get up in the morning and think, "This is America"? How do you do that?
IGNACIO RAMOS, CONVICTED BORDER PATROL AGENT: It`s been very hard, and I felt abandoned for a very long time. It`s been hard to live with.
BECK: You`re facing the possibility of 20 years in prison. I know that, you know, you don`t -- I don`t even want to ask any question that might hurt you in the sentence process. So let me ask you this: The guys that you know that were working with you on the border, how apt are they to actually do anything to stop anybody on the border after they see you getting 20 years?
RAMOS: I couldn`t tell you. I just know it probably can`t be easy for them right now.
BECK: Steve, is it true? I have heard that the reason why we even found out about any of this is because the drug smuggler`s sister had a contact inside Border Patrol...
PETERS: The drug smuggler`s mother was a very close friend of a relative of another Border Patrol agent in Arizona. And the Border Patrol agent in Arizona contacted higher-ups in the Border Patrol and got this started.
BECK: And said what? "My son is a drug smuggler, and your people were shooting at him, and they`re not supposed to"? Is that what happened, basically?
PETERS: The drug smuggler was injured pretty badly. And, you know, the initial report that was given to the government was kind of twisted and didn`t exactly tell all the facts. And I think that what happened was that the government didn`t do a very good job initially of investigating the case.
BECK: All right. I`ve got to tell you, if the guy was hurt badly, I`d say, "One for the good guys." Stephen and Ignacio, thank you so much.
Petition Update
Glenn Beck will have one of the Border Patrol agents, Agent Ramos, and his lawyer on his Glenn Beck tv show tonight to discuss the case. The show will also feature the Grassfire.org petition link on his show. You can catch Glenn's show at 7 and 9 pm tonight on CNN Headline News.
