I have no desire to get embroiled in the current tangled debate on immigration, either legal or illegal. However, I have watched with interest the intense campaign for President Bush first to intervene in the trial of two border patrol agents accused of shooting a suspected Mexican drug dealer as he fled, and then to pardon the agents for the crime after they were convicted.
CNN's Lou Dobbs has led the crusade against illegal immigration for the past several years, and seems to be in the camp that believes if you're an immigrant and you're illegal, the gloves come off. You deserve what you get. I agree with Dobbs that our borders must be secured and that Mexicans entering our country legally should be welcomed as they have been throughout our history. However, those like Osvaldo Aldrete Davila who slip across the border illegally should be stopped and sent back home -- not shot as they are trying to escape.
The agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, entered prison last week amid shrieks of injustice, to begin serving sentences of 11 and 12 years. They were convicted not only of shooting Davila, who was unarmed and running away, but of destroying evidence, covering up a crime scene and filing false reports concerning the circumstances.
Right-wing pundits and politicians on both sides of the
aisle seeking political gain are clamoring for Bush to pardon Ramos and
Compean for their "act of courage" and to ignore the laws they broke
and the crimes they committed.. Although Congress has never bestowed a
pardon on anyone convicted of a crime, in a ploy to get attention last
week, presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) introduced a bill
demanding that Congress, rather than Bush, pardon them.
That's not likely to happen, so the pressure remains on Bush. In an
interview in El Paso last Thursday, Bush was asked if he would consider
pardoning the two agents. In classic Bush bumblespeech, he non-replied,
“There are standards that need to be met in law enforcement, and
according to a jury of their peers, these officers violated some
standards.”
Bush then stammered, “On this case, people need to take a hard look at
the facts, at the evidence that the jury looked at, as well as a judge.
And that’s -- I will do the same thing. Now, there’s a process for
pardons,” he continued. “I mean, it’s got to work its way through a
system here in government. But I just want people to take a sober look
at the reality. It’s a case, as you said, it’s got a lot of emotions.”
Upon hearing this, news sites such as
NewsMax.com,
jumped out with, "Bush Eyes Pardon for Border Patrolmen," and
announced, "President Bush on Thursday said a pardon was possible for
two Border Patrol agents serving prison sentences for shooting a
Mexican drug dealer as he fled and then covering up the crime..."
For NewsMax to reach such a conclusion from Bush's twisted rhetoric is
not only a stretch of the imagination, it's a classic example of
wishful thinking. The "standards" that the two agents "violated" were
laws they broke, for which they were convicted by a jury of their
peers. Ramos and Compean are criminals. According to the Justice
Department, the "process for pardons" that Bush says has to "work its
way through a system here in government" is that once convicted, a
criminal is not even eligible for consideration to be pardoned for a
period of at least five years.
The bad news is that even if Bush, who is determined to work not above
the law but outside the law, decides to "eye" pardons for the two
agents, he will rely on the recommendation of Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales. Given the Bush-Gonzales history of compassion for their
fellow human beings, it's a slam-dunk that Ramos and Compean will
remain incarcerated. The good news is they were not sentenced to
death...
The only coherent statement Bush made is that the border patrol case
has "got a lot of emotions." I don't pretend to understand all I know
about illegal immigration, but it seems likely those emotions will get
uglier and more intense if this administration continues to nod and
wink at securing the border between the United States and Mexico. If
there is a policy other than to give no-bid contracts to Halliburton to
build a network of detention camps where immigrants will be held
indefinitely, I'm not aware of it. I find it difficult to believe that
these camps are cheaper -- more humane -- than simply closing the
border to illegal entry.
Those who cry that the border between Mexico and the United States
stretches for 2,000 miles and is all but impossible to control
apparently are unaware of the
new passport requirements
that go into effect on January 23. Air travelers going to or from the
US, Canada, Mexico, the Carribbean and Bermuda must have passports.
Those who have no problem with them coming for air travelers should
know that as early as January 2008, they're coming back for the rest of
us. According to just the basics,
"All
persons -- including U.S. citizens -- traveling between the U.S. and
Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda
by land or sea (including ferries), may be required to present a valid
passport or other documents as determined by the Department of Homeland
Security."
Americans who cherish freedom would do well
to stop stumbling around in the trees and forests of the illegal
immigration debate and see that the Bush administration is well on its
way to closing the borders of the entire nation, not only to people
trying to get in, but to citizens trying to get out. For the millions
who don't travel, it's probably no big deal -- they long for the
tranquility of servitude and do not recognize shouts coming from the
rest of us as a desperate rattling of chains.
Unfortunately, securing the homeland is a two-edged sword that the Bush
administration and military establishment profiteers are holding firmly
over our heads. It's time Americans realized that we are in danger of
being herded into a national detention camp in which there are no
pardons, and from which there is no escape.
Sheila Samples is an
Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information
Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.
Contact her at:
rsamples@sirinet.net
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