U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) criticized President George W. Bush Monday for not including ex-Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos in last week's round of pardons and commutations.

"President Bush still has time to do the right thing and commute wrongly imprisoned Border Agents Ramos and Compean," Rohrabacher said in a statement. "If he doesn’t, while at the same time pardoning blatant criminals, then he will be remembered for the personal persecution and values that decision reflects."

Rohrabacher, a vocal proponent of strict border patrol policies, has led a group of House Republicans in urging the president to commute the sentences of Ramos and Compean, who were convicted of illegally shooting an unarmed drug dealer in the backside as he fled an abandoned marijuana load near near the border in El Paso, Texas, three years ago.

“The fact that the President has neglected to free these men from their imprisonment while freeing drug dealers, embezzlers and other criminals is insulting to the American people who have been begging and pleading for the President to release the agents whose prosecution was unjust from the beginning," Rohrabacher said. "For the sake of justice, let’s hope this is not the last round of pardons and commutations.”

Ramos and Compean received prison sentences of 11 and 12 years, respectively.

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