Crossing to freedom; Jailed border guards merited clemency.

COLUMN: IN OUR OPINION

Along with many fair-minded Americans, we were pleased to see President Bush grant 11th-hour commutations of sentences to Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, the two border enforcement agents who were convicted in the 2006 shooting of an unarmed Mexican drug smuggler.

While the pair did engage in an improper coverup of their activities on the night of the shooting, there is little question that the two men acted as they thought best when they attempted to apprehend a fleeing drug suspect, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila. Mr. Davila later admitted to smuggling several hundred pounds of marijuana on the day he was shot.

The incident sparked a national debate on U.S. immigration policy. Many conservatives, joined by others across the political spectrum, felt that the agents' sentences of 12 and 11 years in prison were simply excessive in light of their initial efforts to properly enforce the nation's immigration laws.

President Bush agreed, and has commuted their sentences. Both men are expected to be released March 20 after serving 26 months in prison. Certainly, the sentences meted out to the two men were disproportionately harsh in this era of pat-on-the-wrist penalties for white-collar criminals and repeat, violent offenders.

Mr. Compean and Mr. Ramos have vowed to continue their fight to clear their names. Whether that effort succeeds or not, they will soon be free to rejoin their families and take up their lives once more. Their cases were precisely the kind that presidential clemency was designed to address.