The Baumgarten Report

WASHINGTON, DC – Two women, guests on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com. From different backgrounds. Different racial backgrounds. Different communities. But tied together by a terrible bond. Both are victims of the illegal immigration crisis in the United States.

One a wife, whose husband has been taken away from her for 11 years. The other, a mother, whose son is gone forever.

Monica Ramos’ husband was a Border Patrol agent. Doing his job in El Paso County, TX near the Rio Grande. Pursuing a drug smuggling illegal alien who had been stopped with nearly 800 pounds of marijuana in his van. Shots had been fired. The suspect pointed something at him. He thought it was a gun. He opened fire. Later, Agent Ignacio Ramos, who had acted in his capacity as a sworn federal law enforcement, was charged criminally with the shooting of this drug dealer. And was sentenced to prison in Mississippi for 11 years.

Ramos had tears in her eyes as she told her story. So did I. So did many of our callers.

This is what we call justice in the United States?

The other woman is Anita Shaw. She is a sergeant in the United States Army. Has done two tours of duty in Iraq. The second tour interrupted by a family tragedy. A tragedy that could have been averted had the system worked.

Her 17-year-old son, a Los Angeles high school football player who rushed for 1,000 yards in one season, was walking home at 8:30 at night when he was accosted and shot dead. Allegedly by a gang member. Another illegal alien.

Anita Shaw says Pedro Espinoza had been arrested three times before her son was murdered. Once for felonious assault. Once for assault on a peace officer. The third time, the day before the shooting. Then released from the county jail. Released to kill a fine young man. Whose mother was overseas, fighting for his nation. Her nation. Our nation. Not the nation of Espinoza, 19, who is now charged with capital murder. He came here illegally, and used what this nation, this land of opportunity, not to better his life, but to rip and run as a gang banger.

Had the authorities turned him over to immigration agents when they had him, because he is in the United States illegally, Jamiel Shaw Jr. would be alive today.

The Shaw family wants to honor Jamiel Shaw Jr.’s memory by getting the LA City Council to pass a law. Jamiel’s law. Which simply says, if you’re in the country illegally and you’re gang banging, you’re immediately deported.

Can anyone with any degree of common sense object to this? Apparently so. The LA City Council tried to hush the Shaw family up. Any council member who did that should be drummed out of office. And out of town. On a rail.

Anita Shaw credits talk radio for keeping the story of Jamiel Jr.’s murder alive. That’s why she joined us at the FAIR Hold Their Feet To The Fire event here in Washington, DC to tell it again. And again. And again.

Callers were crying. Callers were yelling. Callers were outraged. They should be.

This emotional outpouring is not a result of phobia about immigrants. This is about illegal immigration. And those illegal immigrants who further break the law.

One more note about Agent Ramos. In his trial, they weren’t allowed to bring up the circumstances leading to the confrontation with the man he shot, Osvaldo Aldrete Davilia. His defense attorney couldn’t bring into evidence the fact that Davilia was engaged in smuggling drugs into the United States of America. Because that might have prejudiced the criminal case against Davilia.

So Davilia’s rights, as an illegal drug smuggling alien, deserved better protection than Ramos’ as a federal law enforcement agent sent into harm’s way and assigned to interdict criminals like Davilia.

Pres. Bush leaves office in about four months. On January 20, 2001, on his last day in office, former Pres. Bill Clinton pardoned 141 people. While no one is suggesting that Bush follow his lead, if nothing else, he should do the right thing and pardon two men. Agent Ignacio Ramos. And his co-defendant, Agent Jose Compean who was sentence to 12 years in prison.

Monica Ramos says this case has devastated the Border Patrol. She says it’s increasingly difficult for agents to do their jobs, knowing that they might not get backed if they have to act proactively on the job.

Meanwhile, the bigger issue of what the nation should do about the illegal immigration problem must be addressed. For that, we turn not to Pres. Bush, but to the next president of the United States.

Regardless of what plan is developed to deal with the issue, it’s imperative that those individuals from other countries who are undocumented in the United States who engage in criminal activity not be turned loose on the streets. Let’s take action now to ensure that there are no more murders like that of Jamiel Shaw Jr. And no more need to interview grieving mothers like Anita Shaw again.