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Letter: Border guards deserve better
Thursday, December 28, 2006 - Updated: 12:10 AM EST


An open letter to President George Bush:

As one who has generally supported your contentious policies for the past six years, I must strenuously register my outrage and disgust with your callous treatment of our two U.S. border guards who were found guilty of using excessive force to detain a Mexican drug smuggler. Each now faces 20-year prison terms plus the loss of pension and other rights.

Guard Ignacio Ramos, a former nominee for border control agent of the year, and Jose Compean, both Latinos, attempted to apprehend a fleeing illegal alien at our border. The alien was shot, not killed, and made a martyr in the process. Today the illegal alien is suing the U.S .Government for $5 million. This took place in El Paso, Texas, which is known for its illegal alien activity.

You and other politicians from the border states have always had an abysmal record of publicly decrying entry of illegal aliens while winking to assure your constituents of an undiluted stream of cheap labor. For years you have curried favor with the vote-getting power of anything remotely connected with Hispaniola, whether it be Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or Latin American, at the expense of most Americans. Even New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson, himself a Latino, has decried this sham practice as being harmful to the United States.

You have involved us in a war in Iraq with the logic that it is better to fight Al Quaeda over there than here. Most of us have swallowed that bitter pill because it seemed to make sense and we have reluctantly accepted the death and mutilation of thousands of our finest for that cause.. Why then does your kid-glove policy of allowing the Mexican government to ride roughshod over the basic rights of Americans by herding all of its poor and needy over here to avail themselves of our hard earned medical and social rights? Besides, isn't it possible that many of these Mexican illegal border infiltrators could be Iranian or Syrian Al Quaeda operatives?

A grassroots reaction to your insouciant attitude is now sweeping the country. Called ``Grassfire,'' it calls for signatures to a petition asking you to pardon these two, heroic border guards. Details can be found on: http://www.grassfire.org/142/petition.a ... 5496&NID=1. I hope that true justice will be rendered and that you will reverse course and pardon these loyal Americans.