Ex-Border Patrol agents leave jail

A pair of former Border Patrol agents left jail today after their sentences was commuted last month by then-president George W. Bush.

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean (image) were convicted on several charges, including assault with a dangerous weapon and obstruction of justice for shooting an unarmed Mexican drug smuggler in 2005. The pair was sentenced to over ten years in prison in 2007 yet Bush commuted the sentences on his last full day in the presidency and after campaigning by some politicos and right-wing commentators.

The two men are to be released on March 20th; until then they will be place in a community confinement program:

Traci Billingsley, bureau of prisons spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the two men are out of prison and under the "supervision of the community corrections office for a period of community confinement."

Community confinement means the sentenced person has to spend the last phrase of their sentence either in a halfway house or in home confinement…

"This is great news for both Ramos and Compean, and obviously for their families. I'm happy for them," (Rep. Silvestre Reyes) said. "Had I had my druthers they should have been commuted with Scooter Libby. Certainly, if he deserved it, they deserved it."

Image- Fox News
Online Sources- Chron.com, WTOV9.com, El Paso Times, The Latin Americanist