Bush Pardons Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean

AP News

In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.

Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair was given were too harsh.

Well, good. As noted in the article, these two have become a cause celebre for those concerned with border issues. Not so much for what they did (which was bad) but because the key witness was an illegal and a drug smuggler and he was given immunity for his testimony against two of the good guys. Well, maybe not so good, but you get the idea.

I don't, of course, agree with what they did, but do feel the maximum possible punishment should have been no more than dismissal from the border patrol. But ten years? Ridiculous.

Expect GWB's approval rating among Republicans to go up about five points. For the life of me I don't understand why he didn't do this months ago if he was going to do it at all. In general, the whole concept of last minute pardons means that either you couldn't be bothered to pay attention to this kind of stuff earlier, or that you believe that the pardons will have some kind of negative political repercussion.