Posted on 05/08/2007 11:58:06 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
The power to pardon traditionally belongs to the president. But Representative Duncan Hunter, who is seeking the 2008 Republican nomination, isn’t waiting for Inauguration Day.
Mr. Hunter introduced a bill in January to initiate an unprecedented Congressional pardon of two former border patrol agents currently serving 11- and 12-year sentences after shooting a drug smuggler on the Texas-Mexico border in 2005.
For Mr. Hunter and other immigration hardliners, their conviction is an “extreme injustice.”
While Constitutional objections are “very much a possibility,” said Joe Kasper, Mr. Hunter’s spokesman, he doesn’t see the measure threatening executive power. The president’s required signature on the bill “would obviously be synonymous with his authority to execute a pardon,” he said. “The Congress is doing nothing more than initiating a pardon.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...
BTW - The BPA’s testified they were aiming for the back of his torso on each and every shot. They were shooting at his back and they were shooting to kill.
G, I’m keeping an open mind about Hunter.
Nope, although that seems to happen on a regular basis. I don’t know who makes that decision and whether the defendents can insist on seprate trials.
At the time the shoot, they didn’t know if he was a smuggler, a coyote or even if he was a US or Mexican citizen. All they knew was he took them on a short high speed pursuit in a van that didn’t even match the description of the vehicle originally reported leaving the drop area.
They new that he failed to heed directions, was acting in a suspicious manner indicative of cirinal acitivity and they had reason to believe that he was armed.
Condoning such obvious and dangerous violations of anyones civil rights is a slippery slope to a police state. Illegals may be the “jews” of 21st century America, but as we saw in nazi Germany, that kind of blanket police authority easily moves from one scapegoat to the next.
You make me sick.
Criminal alien invaders, especially drug runners, are not citizens stripped of rights due to religious or ethnic status.
You really are just a leftist who doesn't like taxes.
Hunter would be a dream candidate, were he not one of the people behind that ban on Internet gambling. At this early stage in the Presidential race, we need to be really alert to signs of special interest pandering.
Thanks Bob. I think many here misunderstand your position. I don’t think you are happy about the extent of the punishment, but want some restraints on what LEOs can do to illegals.
I don't care about the gambling aspect either. The gambling ban is a horrendously bad idea for two reasons: first, it illegally expands the American legal reach to the internal policies of other countries. The new law could have just prevented banks and credit card companies from honoring gambling contracts made with overseas casinos. Instead, it caused the arrest of British casino operators who happened to be passing through one of our airports in transit. This kind of thing, not fighting terror, is what causes foreign countries to hate us. And for crap like this, the feeling is richly justified.
Secondly, it's not a morality-based attack on gambling as a vice, because it applies only to overseas competition to our state lotteries and racetracks. It's special interest pandering so blatant that average Americans just ignore it if they actually feel inclined to gamble.
McCain is half crazy (at least), can't decide if he's with the dems or the GOP and carries a lot of baggage.
Giulianni is a liberal who had exactly one shining moment, but is otherwise unacceptable to any voter worthy of the name "conservative."
Romney, who governed as a liberal in Massachusetts and flip-flops more than the last trout I caught, belongs to a bizarre cult to which he has sworn allegiance above all else.
I won't vote for brand X.
GO DUNCAN GO!!!
I like the guy, but when it comes to the 15-20 million invaders on our soil, breaking our immigration and tax laws and joining in anti-American protests, Fred wants to pretend that the elephant is not in the livingroom.
He seems genuinely oblivious to the danger in this and to the message it sends.
The power to pardon has nothing to do with “tradition”, it is granted exclusively to the president by the Constitution.”
The President pardons drug dealers and leaves Ramos and Compean in prison.
If it needs Bush’s signature to become a pardon, I can’t see where Hunter is doing anything unconstitutional.
Maybe it’s what Bush needs, so he can pardon them without seeming to like it.
“But would Congress be granting a pardon with this bill or merely proposing one? Afterall, no grant of pardon occurs without the President’s signature. This bill looks like a way to give Bush political cover. I think he wants to help these border patrol agents.”
Good point.
That's more like it. Our do nothing Congress is part of the reason we have such a mess on our borders, and the very reason those two border patrol agents are in prison!
Thank God for men like Duncan Hunter! GW has sat on this for a few months now. He was supposed to review it and make a decision about pardoning them. I never expected to follow through with it because that would have meant going against Mexico's wishes, and God knows he will never do that.
There you go again. Distorting the testimony. Yes, Compean testified he shot to kill, but he also testified that Davila turned and pointed what he thought was a gun at him. Ramos stated almost the same thing except he had yelled "Parate" to elicit the behavior of Davila. They did not testify that they were aiming for the back of his torso. Get it straight.
He reads the calendar in the same manner as he reads the testimony.
Come on, GW, don't wait two years to do what's right!
Convincing the President to pardon these agents is one thing. Introducing a bill to ask a demonrat-controlled Congress to do it is exactly the sort of thing that gives Pelosi the cajones to threaten the President with a lawsuit over war. After all, if Duncan isn’t strong enough to convince the President, why should any rat believe they cannot push him around?
Having said that, if Bush would pardon these people neither I nor the rest of America would give a hoot about the details of how these illegal drug-runners perished.
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