The Senate on Thursday voted to hire 1,000 more U.S. Border Patrol agents as part of a $600 million border-security bill, acting swiftly in the hours before they left to face constituents during their five-week summer vacation.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, who is spearheading his party's immigration-reform efforts, said the money shows Congress is committed to border security as a down payment on eventually legalizing illegal immigrants.
"I'm for comprehensive immigration reform. I think that's the way to go. And I'm continuing to work on it," Mr. Schumer said. "But we've always said we should do border security first. This is border security first."
The money would come from charging higher fees on worker visas for companies whose staffs are made up of mostly foreign workers.
Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain, had offered their own proposals, which would deploy more agents to the border and expand detention of illegal border crossers, but Mr. McCain said Mr. Schumer's bill was "a significant step forward."
President Obama's original budget request for the upcoming fiscal year actually called for cutting the number of Border Patrol agents, but facing pressure from Democrats and Republicans, he requested the $600 million in new spending, including the new agents. Mr. Obama has also begun to deploy up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the border to help in the interim, while the new agents are being hired.
[We shall see whether this gets any farther than a funding bill being passed-- remember the 'fence?'-- Editor]
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
2 comments:
Nothing will be done. This is just another election year ploy to try and fool the public into voting these incompetent idiots back into office. I don't think it is going to work this time.
Let me guess. The Nation guard is going to hand out free lunches as they escort them across the border?
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