During his farewell news conference, President George W. Bush pointed to several policy miscues, mistaken decisions, and faulty assumptions that marred his presidency. Something he neglected to mention was the deplorable treatment of U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were each sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for trying to apprehend a Mexican drug smuggler.

On Feb. 17, 2005, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila was spotted smuggling 743 pounds of marijuana across the Texas border. After a high-speed chase, the unarmed Aldrete-Davila resisted arrest and tried to escape back to Mexico on foot. Both agents fired at him, hitting him once in the buttocks. For reasons they later acknowledged were imprudent, the agents did not tell their superiors about the shooting. Even so, an official investigation was launched after Aldrete-Davila’s mother-in-law complained (about the shooting, not the drugs).