PRESIDENT BUSH APPEARS TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT MEXICAN OPINIONS

Last week, Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Charlie Dent became another influential voice calling on President Bush to pardon two former border patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed drug smuggler who was trying to escape across the US-Mexico border. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are serving more than 10 years each for shooting Osvaldo Davila in the buttocks while he was fleeing from an abandoned van loaded with 750 pounds of marijuana.

So far President Bush has granted 29 pardons for felons. Conspicuous for their absence are two border guards, Compean and Ramos! These are two men who along with hundreds of other men and women who put their lives on the line every time they go on duty. The people who smuggle illegal aliens and DRUGS into the USA across the borders of our border States with Mexico, are dangerous people who carry automatic weapons. They have even been alleged to be accompanied on some occasions with army troops. Even if this is not true, they do not give up easily when cornered by the border agents, and are willing to shoot if challenged.

There is no good reason other than to placate the Mexican authorities and government that president Bush has been cosing up to throughout his term in office to solidify the NAFTA agreements. And only he knows why he allowed these two brave men to be jailed in the first place. If he fails to pardon them before he leaves office he will show his disdain for the protection of our borders, and give further credence to the conspiracy theory that he is more of an Internationalist who dreams of a united USA, Mexico and Canada in a single nation!

He purports to be a devout Christian, and I have no doubt he is. Well the Christian thing to do is to pardon these unjustly jailed border guards, and right a wrong that is a scar on this nations concern for those who wear a police uniform.He does not have a problem with pardoning a member of the mineworkers union who was convicted for his role in bombings at a West Virginia coal mine, a counterfeiter and a bootlegger. Why not pardon two border guards who were doing their job!