|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
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.
Story Continues Below 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.
© 2007 Associated Press.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
George W. Bush Inside Cover Stories
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2008 NewsMax.Com |