The White House has announced that President Bush has commuted the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Joe Compean, the two former border agents who became a cause célèbre of anti-immigration conservatives when they were convicted for shooting and wounding an unarmed drug smuggler, spending the last two years in prison.
The two are now scheduled to be released on March 20, 2009, seven years ahead of schedule for Ramos and eight years early for Compean, with Bush choosing to leave intact three years of supervised release.
Some of the right-wingers out there might be dissatisfied that this wasn’t a full pardon — the two are still convicted felons — but the conservative movement overall can chalk this one up as a small victory.
Late Update: Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the anti-illegal immigration group the Minutemen Project, has sent out an e-mail praising the commutation, and thanking everyone who supported the grassroots effort — especially Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.