Bipartisan effort mounts to pardon border agents

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is joining colleagues from either side of the aisle to condemn the Bush Administration for not pardoning imprisoned Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

Both men are serving 10- to 11-year sentences for shooting an alleged drug smuggler in the buttocks. The sentences are excessive, Rohrabacher said.

Rohrabacher was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but his letter — co-signed by Reps. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), and Ted Poe (R-Texas) — implores Bush to release the men by Christmas.

The representatives are also co-sponsors of House Congressional Resolution 267, a non-binding resolution that calls on the president to pardon the agents.

The letter lists data from the 2006 U.S. Sentencing Commission Guidelines, listing the average national sentence for assaults involving firearms as three years.

The White House has remained ambiguous in its position on the status of agents Ramos and Compean, despite bipartisan criticisms.

— Chris Caesar