Appropriations Bill May Force Agents' Release

Congressional Republicans have succeeded in attaching an amendment to an important appropriations bill. The amendment cuts off federal funds from being used for the incarceration of Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean.

The withdrawal of funds for the imprisonment of the two falsely accused Border Patrol agents will mean their release from prison.

Congress is expected to pass the appropriations bill containing the amendment.

One Republican Congressman observed that President Bush will likely sign the bill, in spite of the fact that it contains a provision aimed at doing what he has yet refused to do--release the two Agents.

The Congressman suggested that the President has more to lose by refusing to sign the appropriations bill than he would by vetoing the measure because of the amendment. The President has been under enormous political pressure, most of it from members of his own Party, to release the two Agents.

By signing the appropriations bill containing an amendment that will lead to the Agents' release, the President can save face. He doesn't have to say a word about the amendment. But those who have been adamant about the Agents' release get what they want.

The problem is what happens afterwards. Will investigations by Congressional Republicans simply dry up due to the fact that Ramos and Compean are set free?

What about their reputations which have been soiled by the lies of the DOJ and the DHS, which painted the two men as 'bad cops'?

What about the lies to Congress?

What about the systematic suppression of law enforcement at our southern border perpetrated by a rogue U.S. Attorney who apparently wishes to appease the Mexican government more than he wishes to obey the law?

Will Congress simply try to sweep the entire fiasco under the rug by the release of Ramos and Compean, hoping that the citizens forget that both the Bush Administration and Congressional Democrats have been grossly negligent in enforcing U.S. laws concerning illegal aliens and in making our borders secure?

We can only hope that statesmen like Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Dana Rohrabacher, and many others, including conservative Democrats, will never stop digging until they discover the ugly truth behind the Border Patrol scandal, and then take pertinent steps to clean out the corruption.