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In one of his last actions as president, George W. Bush on Monday commuted the sentences being imposed on two former border agents who had been convicted of shooting a Mexican drug dealer in 2005.


The two agents, who have purged some two years of the sentences, they could leave prison in the next two months.


Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compeán, who tried to cover up the shooting, was well received by members of the Republican and Democratic parties in Congress.


For a long time, both parties had argued that the agents just did their job to defend the U.S. border criminals. The legislators also argued that the sentences of more than 10 years in prison handed down against each of the former officers of El Paso, Texas, were too severe.


The Mexican government was opposed to the release of the accused and expressed its opposition to the measure, seen as a failure in law enforcement.


"This is a message of impunity for the actions of police officers which is frankly hard to understand," said Carlos Rico, undersecretary for North America at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.


"We express our strong opposition, but political operatives last minute were stronger than our efforts," said Rico.


Resentment by the guilty pleas, convictions and dismissals had deepened since the events in 2005. The case then unleashed an intense debate on undocumented immigration in the United States.


Ramos and Compeán became focus of conservatives and television, where his supporters called the heroes. Almost a bipartisan congressional delegation from Texas and other Republican and Democratic lawmakers had urged Bush to intervene in the case with a measure of leniency.


Bush pardoned the two men for their crimes, but decided to change their prison sentences because they were considered excessive and that they had already lost their jobs, freedom and their reputations, said a prominent official.


The decision of the president, who believes that the Border Patrol agents received fair trials and verdicts, not diminish the gravity of their crimes, added the official.


Both were found guilty of wounding a shot in the buttocks Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, who will be admitted drug trafficker, when he fled toward the Rio Grande on the border between Mexico and the United States after leaving a vehicle with marijuana. The officials said that in the shot because they believed he was armed.


Compeán and Ramos were sentenced to 12 years in prison and 11 years respectively. They were also each fined $ 2000 and sentenced to three years of supervised release. With Bush's decision, prison sentences expire on March 20 but remain intact fines and probation.


Bush, who leaves office on Tuesday, has issued 189 pardons and 11 commutations, which are slightly less than half of the measures granted by former presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan to two terms.


The stepfather of Ramos, Joe Loya, said that efforts to free his son had marked the entire family and said his daughter, Monica Ramos, told from New York to hear the news. "I could barely talk," he said.