By Dena Bunis and Cindy Carcamo for the Orange County Register – With less than 24 hours to go in office, President George W. Bush today commuted the sentences of two former border patrol agents in federal prison for shooting a fleeing Mexican drug dealer.
Two Orange County lawmakers who have been crusading for the release of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean said this morning that they were relieved and thankful. And they credited the public outcry against the convictions and the more than decade-long sentences for the two ex-agents as the reasons for Bush's apparent change of heart.
"This is a victory for Ramos and Compean but also a victory for the millions of Americans who got involved and kept making the noises that were loud enough and long enough to create a change,'' said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.
"I will be there when they get out of prison,'' Rohrabacher said. He added that he still plans to ask incoming President Barack Obama to pardon the two former officers. A commutation means they will get out of jail. But Rohrabacher said he wants their records cleared. He estimated it could take up to 60 days for the commutation process to result in the two going home to their families.
Claudia Martinez said her brother will be home in time foir his 3-year-old son's birthday on March 29. There will be a "welcome home, slash birthday party; a big, big party with our family,'' she said.
When Martinez, who lives in Rohrabacher's Huntington Beach-based district, got word from Compean's wife that her brother was indeed coming home, Martinez said she felt like as ton of bricks had been lifted from her shoulders.
"I couldn't believe it,'' she said. "We were waiting for so long.'' She thanked everyone who pushed for her brother's release.
"This isn't justice but it is better than what many anticipated,'' said Rep. Ed Royce. "I am so relieved Not only is this an important step in this case but it's also an important sign to other law enforcement officers.''
Royce, R-Fullerton, had authored a letter to Bush last year, signed by 85 of his colleagues, urging the president to pardon the two. He also said that he buttonholed the president at last month's holiday party at the White House and appealed to him on the basis that the sentences for the two were excessive.
And that was the argument a dozen lawmakers used last week during a news conference Rohrabacher called to once again pressure the president.
Those arguments may well have done the trick.
A senior administration official told The Associated Press today that Bush commuted the sentences instead of pardoning Ramos and Compean because he believed the terms were excessive and that they had already suffered the loss of their jobs, freedom and reputations.
"I commend President Bush for doing the right thing today; I only wish he had done it sooner,'' Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, said in a statement. "My congratulations go out to Ramos and Compean, and their families, and I wish them all the best as they close a difficult chapter of their lives and begin anew."
Rohrabacher also said his work on this case is not over. Besides helping the families to get their lives back, he wants to see a law enacted that never puts law enforcement officials in such a position again.
"We've got to pass legislation, which should be entitled the Ramos and Compean legislation, which makes it clear that Congress does not intend for law enforcement officers to be prosecuted for gun charges while in the performance of their duty,'' Rohrabacher said.
The two were convicted of shooting admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks in 2005 as he fled across the Rio Grande, away from an abandoned van load of marijuana. The border agents argued during their trials that they believed the smuggler was armed and that they shot him in self-defense.
Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton argued there was no evidence linking the smuggler to the van of marijuana. He also said the agents tried to cover up the incident by not reporting the shooting and tampering with evidence by picking up several spent shell casings. The two were convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 11 and 12 years.
Both Royce and Rohrabacher said they planned to help the former officers put their lives back together. Both mentioned that after they were fired, Ramos and Compean lost their pensions and health insurance.
For some the crusade to free the two border agents became intertwined with the debate over illegal immigration.
‘"It was a deadly message that was sent with their imprisonment...," said Barbara Coe, who leads the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, an anti-illegal immigration group. Coe believes drug smugglers and illegal immigrants took the imprisonment of the ex-agents "as a sign that our government would not be pursuing them or prosecuting them.’’
But Martinez sees this case differently.
"In my opinion, I don't think this really had anything to do with illegal immigration. It was more of a fact that he was a drug smuggler," Martinez said of the man her brother shot. "It got blown up a little differently, I think."
With these two last-minute acts of clemency, Bush has granted 189 pardons and 11 commutations during his eight years in office. That's fewer than half as many as President Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan issued during their two-term tenures.
Bush technically has until noon tomorrow when Obama takes the oath of office to exercise his executive pardon authority. But presidential advisers said no more were expected.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
