Hispanic Caucus says rep. misled

A bill sponsored by Reps. William Delahunt (D-Mass.) with co-sponsorship from Dana Rohrabacher and Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) is the first bipartisan attempt to free Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean since they were served with 11- to 12-year prison sentences for shooting an accused smuggler in the buttocks, Rohrabacher said.

“The significance of the resolution is that it is truly a bipartisan effort,” he said. “Up until this point, this has basically been a conservative Republican cause.”

But the bipartisan good vibes were dealt a setback when Rohrabacher erroneously claimed last week that the resolution was bottled up in committee and blamed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for lobbying it into political limbo.

“The [Democratic] leadership has gone along with the Hispanic Caucus and their claim that Ramos and Compean are guilty of police brutality,” he said last week.

“Instead of being proud Mexican-Americans who are defending our border, the Hispanic Caucus is portraying them as simple, brutal cops who are committing police brutality.”

The Hispanic Caucus, however, strongly contested the allegation that they were responsible for shelving the bill, noting that they were bombarded with telephone calls from people they say were misled by Rohrabacher’s remarks.

“The CHC is not opposing or blocking this resolution,” Hispanic Caucus Chairman Joe Baca (D-Calif.) stated in a release. “Bills must first go through the committee process before they are eligible to be brought to the floor.

“This resolution has bipartisan support, was introduced by a Democrat, Rep. Delahunt, and has CHC members as cosponsors,” he said. “It is very rare for any legislation to be brought to House floor for immediate consideration.”

Rohrabacher made his earlier comments in haste, the congressman’s spokeswoman Tara Setmayer said.

“Dana is sometimes emotional about things, and in this case he kind of decided to pass on information that we weren’t absolutely sure was the case,” she said.

Rohrabacher said a call from the Caucus correcting his earlier comments was “good news” for the bill’s sponsors.

“They contacted us to let us know that [my comments] did not accurately reflect their position,” he said. “I was very happy to hear that — that’s the kind of calls you like to have.”

The shooting victim, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, was charged last month with possession with intent to distribute marijuana in September and October 2005.