Ignacio Ramos

About Ignacio Ramos

Ignacio Ramos is a former United States Border Patrol Agent, who shot an allegedly unarmed illegal alien and drug smuggler on the United States–Mexico border. He was convicted of causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, and a civil rights violation. On January 19, 2009, his sentence was commuted by President Bush.

Ramos was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 11 years and one day in prison for shooting and wounding an unarmed person named Osvaldo Aldrete Dávila near the Fabens settlement of unincorporated El Paso County, Texas, while Dávila ran away at about 1 PM on February 17, 2005. Fellow agent Jose Compean was sentenced to 12 years. After the shooting the officers disposed of their shell casings, made no further attempt to apprehend the suspect, lied to their supervisors, and filed a false investigative report. Aldrete Dávila had been found with nearly 800 pounds of marijuana in the back of his van. Following the incident, Aldrete Dávila was granted a temporary conditional visitor's visa in exchange for giving his testimony against Ramos and Compean. Ramos and his partner were incarcerated January 17, 2007.

Congressmen Ted Poe and John Culberson indicated that the Department of Homeland Security lied to them about the case when it indicated that it had evidence that the agents "plotted and conspired that day to go out and shoot" Mexicans. Richard Skinner, Inspector General of DHS, apologized to the congressmen for misleading them.