You are absolutely right! Communting their sentence was the appropriate thing to do.
President Bush should NEVER have prosecuted them. The prosecutor was specially picked by Bush and this reflects Bush’s desire to “play ball” with the Mexican Government who was calling for action. They saw this as an act to close our borders, i.e., enforce our laws. While I remain a Bush supporter, this was NOT Bush’s finest hour, as reflected in a commutation vs a pardon.