Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jan 2009
Source: Advertiser, The (Lafayette, LA)
Copyright: 2009 The Lafayette Daily Advertiser
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/83k6kjZG
Website: http://www.theadvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1670
Author: Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Note: Ruben Navarrette Jr., is a columnist and editorial board member 
of The San Diego Union Tribune. He is the author of A Darker Shade of 
Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano.

ON WAY OUT, BUSH DID THE RIGHT THING

I was glad to see that George W. Bush commuted the  prison sentences
of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio  Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean.

I never had much sympathy for Ramos or Compean,  disgraced law
enforcement officers who were convicted  of shooting a Mexican drug
smuggler and then lying  about it.

Bush was also convinced that the men were guilty.  That's why he
didn't pardon them.

In a stunning display of situational ethics, Ramos and  Compean became
instant superheroes to anti-immigration  activists.

The narrative of poor, defenseless Border Patrol agents  victimized by
politics and railroaded into prison was a  convenient fantasy.

The facts were never in doubt. On Feb. 17, 2005, Ramos  and Compean
were on patrol on the U.S.-Mexico border  near Fabens, Texas, when
they spotted a van. When they  approached, they discovered Osvaldo
Aldrete-Davila, who  ran toward the Mexican side of the border. The
agents  opened fire. Aldrete-Davila was hit, but he got away.  No gun
was found, but the van was loaded with  marijuana.

It was only after another Border Patrol agent heard the  story and
pieced together what really happened that  Aldrete-Davila was located
and the agents were  prosecuted - to the chagrin of congressional
Republicans, border vigilantes and right-wing talk-show  hosts.

Having said that, the reason I'm glad that Bush  commuted the agents'
sentences is that the president  did it on his own terms and within
his own time frame.  He didn't give in to the bullying by anti-illegal
immigration forces or members of his own party.
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