BUSH RIGHT ON RAMOS AND COMPEAN

Two Agents Who Shot a Suspect Did Not Deserve a Pardon, But They Also
Didn't Belong in Prison for More Than 10 Years

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, the two former Border Patrol
agents whose prison sentences were commuted by President Bush this
week, made an awful lot of mistakes on that day in February 2005 when
they met Osvaldo Aldrete Davila near the U.S.-Mexico border.

At the time, Aldrete Davila was crossing illegally into the United
States in a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana. When he saw the
agents coming toward him, he turned back toward Mexico. They pursued
him until he lost control of the van and scrambled out. There was a
scuffle, he broke away -- and the agents fired about 15 shots,
ultimately hitting him in the buttocks. Aldrete Davila, it turned out,
was unarmed; he stumbled away, and the agents failed to catch him.
They didn't even know for sure whether they had hit him, but they
decided not to report the incident and carefully removed all the
shotgun shell casings from the ground.

When the facts emerged, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of
Texas decided to prosecute, which seems like a reasonable decision. An
unarmed man had been shot while fleeing, a coverup had taken place,
and it was unclear whether the agents' explanations could pass muster.
Ramos and Compean were convicted of an assortment of weapon and
assault charges and sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively. That's
a very long time considering that Aldrete Davila wasn't killed -- but
the judge's hands were tied by a law requiring a mandatory 10-year
minimum sentence because a firearm was discharged during a crime of
violence.

That was when the case took on a life of its own, becoming a cause
celebre in the immigration wars. Anti-immigration advocates portrayed
the agents as "good guys" who were being "crucified" merely for doing
their jobs. Lobbying began in earnest for a full pardon. CNN's
resident xenophobe, Lou Dobbs, took up the cause.

It is depressing that the discussion degenerated so far. Like so much
of our national discourse, the debate over immigration is too often
emotional, overwrought and irrational. The simple truth is that law
enforcement officers are not all good, and they're certainly not
entitled to shoot people who don't pose them any harm -- even drug
smugglers or illegal immigrants.

This page believes that the agents committed serious felonies and were
rightly prosecuted. But the sentences they received were also too
long. As we have argued in the past, taking discretion away from
judges by imposing mandatory sentencing rules is almost never a good
idea. By granting a commutation rather than a full pardon, Bush said
- -- rightly -- that the agents' punishment should be reduced but that
the underlying conviction should remain on the books.