The victory for the Ramos family of having Congressman Nunes sign HR 563 for the pardoning of Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean has had positive repercussions across the whole of the Hold Their Feet To The Fire event and in particular for the bloggers here - and ALIPAC who invited them.
I would personally like to thank all of you who donated to send me here. I have tried to represent you the best I can, including losing my voice by screaming at the White House for hours to free our border patrol agents. More on that later, but here is a press release that was picked up by several radio stations, including Roger Hedgecock and broadcast across America.
BLOGGERS SCORE AT HOLD THEIR FEET TO THE FIRE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
4:30PM 4/25/2007 EST
CONTACT: Agentramos.com, Rita Bonilla, Dan Amato,
William Gheen
The family members of Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean, and bloggers, participating for the first time in “Hold Their Feet to The Fire” have scored a legislative success.
On Monday April 23rd, three members of the agent’s families, visited the office of Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA). The family members were mistreated by Nunes’ staff member, Andrew House to the point of tears. When they returned to the Phoenix Park Hotel, which is the home of Radio and Bloggers Row and “Hold Their Feet to The Fire”, blogger Dan Amato interviewed them about their encounter and quickly posted to the web.
Bloggers and online activists from across the country immediately distributed this information and the phone lines in Nunes’ office rang off the hook, as angry Americans rebuked the actions of his staff. This led to Congressman Nunes scheduling a meeting to apologize.
“When we heard that they wanted a new meeting, I contacted their office and they were very receptive and they rolled out the red carpet for us”, said Rita Bonilla of the organization “You Don’t Speak For Me”
When we arrived for the new meeting, Nunes’ staff member, Andrew House apologized four times and informed us that Congressman Nunes would sign HR 563, which provides a congressional pardon to free agents Ramos and Compean. This makes Congressman Nunes the first member of the Hispanic Caucus to sign this bill. Mr. House then stated that Congressman Nunes would probably speak with other members of the Hispanic Caucus about signing this bill.
Blogger Dan Amato quickly interviewed Raymond Herrera, Ramos’ Aunt Gloria Olson and Ramos’ father Ignacio and had the report on the web within thirty minutes, at which point bloggers across the country picked up the story, which resulted in many angry calls to Nunes’ office.
“I was thrilled upon hearing about the signing of the bill, and I was glad to have helped” said Dan Amato of DiggersRealm.com
“This is the ‘New Media’ in action”, said William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC. “The rapid and massive feedback to Nunes office is an example of what the fusion of the internet and talk radio can do”.
Monica Ramos who was not present at either meeting was thrilled that Congressman Nunes will sign the bill and truly appreciative of the support she has received.
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I met with the family of Nacho Ramos and they are thrilled.
I have a lot, lot more on the Ramos family, including the simply incredible strength of Monica Ramos
