It has become a Christmas tradition for presidents to pardon criminals before the end of the year. This year, President Bush pardoned 29 people. The list included drug dealers, carjackers, thieves and at least one moonshiner. While the mainstream media focused on the fact that Scooter Libby’s name was conspicuously absent from the list, two others who deserve a pardon went largely ignored.
Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were convicted of firing their guns at a fleeing drug smuggler while guarding the U.S. border with Mexico. One of the bullets found its mark, but the drug dealer made it back across the border where he sought the aid of the Mexican government. They protested so fervidly the Bush administration gave them their pound of flesh. The two agents were sentenced to a decade in prison.
The drug dealer, a habitual smuggler of illegal drugs into this country, was given immunity to testify against the two agents. On his return to give his testimony, he brought in another large shipment of drugs. It took two years until he was finally arrested for that shipment. In the meantime, the two agents continue to rot in jail.
For Christmas, President Bush pardoned John Edward Casto, a convicted cocaine dealer. Debbie Sue Conklin got the presidential nod after being convicted of dealing meth. Paul Dwight Hawkins was forgiven by the president for dealing pot. John F. McDermott was convicted of taking kickbacks in defense procurement contracts. Bush let him off the hook.
Seems the president is partial to drug dealers. It also seems the president continues to pander to the Mexican government instead of taking care of his own. It is unconscionable that two men doing their jobs would find themselves imprisoned by their own government. Had they killed the drug dealer they probably would have avoided a trial. In retrospect, it’s a pity they didn’t.
I’m not a big fan of presidential pardons in the first place. Unless there has been a gross miscarriage of justice, the president should stay out of the judicial process. However, in the case of Ramos and Compean, two men under the charge of the federal government who were simply carrying out their assigned duties to protect our borders, the U.S. government has abandoned them.
This Christmas, coke and meth dealers will be lifting a glass to our president while two federal agents press their fingertips against a wire-meshed window, seeking the fingertips of their loved ones just on the other side. Scooter Libby will sleep comfortably in his bed, never having served a day in prison because he had connections. Ramos and Compean will toss and turn because they had none.
Justice is a subjective term. The dictionary definition of the word is “the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness.” I can’t imagine what’s morally right about pardoning a drug dealer.
For Ramos and Compean it’s more like “just us,” two men who attempted to stop a notorious drug smuggler only to have the drug smuggler use his connections to lock them up.
