Thread: From NewsMAX: No Promise to commute

From the NewsMax.com Staff

Thursday, July 19, 2007 3:42 p.m. EDT
No 'Promise' on Border Agent Pardons: Bush

President Bush sharply challenged critics of his stalled immigration-overhaul efforts on Thursday, suggesting that failure to pass a guest-worker program could trigger a labor shortage in the United States.

At a town-hall style meeting, Bush also rebuffed a question about whether he would consider pardoning two Border Patrol agents in prison for the cover-up of the shooting of a drug trafficker in Texas.

"No, I won't make you that promise," Bush told a woman who asked about a possible pardon. Many Republicans in Congress have said the men should not have been convicted and have criticized the federal U.S. attorney for even prosecuting the agents.

"I know it's an emotional issue but people need to look at the facts. These men were convicted by a jury of their peers after listening to the facts" as presented by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, said Bush. Bush called Sutton a friend.

Bush took questions for more than an hour. Most were friendly, but several on immigration policy were pointed.

The president said he was disappointed about his immigration bill's demise in the Senate and reiterated his support for a guest worker program and a path toward citizenship for many of the 12 million illegal immigrants now in the United States.

Without such a program, and with stricter enforcement of the border, said Bush, "I can make you a prediction ... that pretty shortly people are going to be knocking on people's doors saying `Man we're running out of workers."'

When Bush was asked about whether he would consider pardoning the two border patrol agents, he seemed briefly taken aback.
"I'm not going to make that kind of promise in a forum like this, obviously," he said. "I'm interested in facts. I know the prosecutor very well, Johnny Sutton. He's a dear friend of mine from Texas. He's a fair guy. He is an evenhanded guy and I can't imagine, well, you know. ..."

To the woman, Bush said, "You've got a nice smile but you can't entice me (into) making a public statement" on the controversy.
The issue of presidential pardons has been front and center since Bush last month commuted the 30-month jail sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Bush had called the sentence "excessive."

The border patrol case has figured in the debate over overhauling immigration law. And calls for executive clemency have come from many Republican lawmakers. Former agents Ignacio Ramos and Alonso Compean are serving 11- and 12-year federal prison sentences, respectively, for the 2005 shooting.

The woman who asked the question of Bush told him that the Tennessee General Assembly has passed a resolution asking for such a pardon.

President Bush listens to no one except the Mexican Government and himself.

I saw this on Lou Dobbs this evening and when Bush said "No, I won't make you that promise", I thought, what the h@## good would his promise be anyway? He doesn't deliver what he promises already. He "promised" years ago for a secure America...
Wish I could reach through the tv screen....errrrr

I hope this ass of a "president" gets to feel the exact same way he has made others feel (like Ramos and Compean) someday. I hear him speak on tv and I feel sick to my stomach.

Local news, (I'm 73 mi. from Nashville) just showed a piece on his visit and he was met (as usual) with quite a few protesters. During a Q&A session he was asked about enforcing immigration laws and his reply was (again, as usual) that businesses can't be expected to verify Social Security numbers and that we "need a new system; the system is broken". Again with "the system is broken"!!!
What a crock! His view is the system is broken only because the present system is not what he agrees to. His perfect system would be an "open borders" system, no enforcement, period.

He spent a whole 5 seconds hugging one of our soldiers who was badly woulded and lost both legs in Iraq...how compassionate he is.

549 DAYS, 18 Hrs, 7 Min 41.6 Sec...is not soon enough!