New York Times
By Ashley Parker
June 21, 2013
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, on Friday scheduled a vote for Monday to end debate and take up a hard-fought border security deal, all but ensuring that the Senate will vote on an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws before the Fourth of July recess.
On Monday, the Senate will turn its full attention to the border security agreement hammered out by Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota, both Republicans. It would cost roughly $30 billion and create what some legislators are calling a “border surge” by doubling the border control force.
The plan is another step toward assuaging the concerns of some Republicans who are reluctant to support the broader immigration overhaul, which offers a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, without further strengthening border security. On Thursday, Mr. Corker said he believed that his amendment could earn the support of roughly 15 Republicans — a coup for the bipartisan group of senators that drafted the original legislation and is hoping to pass it through the Senate with strong bipartisan support.
The Corker-Hoeven plan would increase the border patrol force to 40,000 agents from 21,000 and require 700 miles of new fencing. It would also allocate $3.2 billion to a high-tech border surveillance system, establish a mandatory electronic employment verification system and implement a visa entry/exit system at all air and seaports in order to prevent immigrants from overstaying their visas.
Although the deal was announced on Thursday, the senators did not officially file their amendment until Friday.
The plan also includes measures by other Republicans, including Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah. Mr. Hatch’s provisions would prevent unauthorized workers from qualifying for Social Security benefits and prevent noncitizens from receiving federal welfare funds. He plans to push for a vote next week on another amendment, which would require immigrants here illegally to pay five years of federal back taxes before receiving legal status.
“I’m proud of the work these two senators have done with the sponsors of the bill, and the contributions of all those who have played a part in this process,” Mr. Hatch said in a written statement, referring to Mr. Corker and Mr. Hoeven. “I’m pleased these two common-sense amendments I put forward limiting public benefits to newly legalized immigrants are a part of this package as well.”
Some advocates of the legislation worry that the Corker-Hoeven plan to enhance border security would be too expensive and amount to a militarization of the country’s southern border.
“This sort of expenditure translates not just to wasted taxpayer money, but to a rollback on the American values for due process and equal treatment for millions of Americans living along our border,” Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said in a statement. “We are deeply concerned that in their zeal to score a major political win, senators allowed the fundamental freedoms of border communities and aspiring citizens to be trampled.”
The plan, however, will probably be one of the final additions to an immigration bill that is already 867 pages. It is likely to placate reluctant Republicans while strengthening border security in a way that Senate Democrats still view as achievable.
The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, expressed her support for the agreement on Friday.
“The president has made clear that common-sense immigration reform legislation must include measures to strengthen border security, create a path to earned citizenship, crack down on employers that hire undocumented workers and streamline our legal immigration system so everyone is playing by the same set of rules,” Ms. Napolitano said in a statement. “The border security amendment agreed to by a bipartisan group of senators is in line with that criteria. It will devote important additional resources to the robust border security system this administration has put in place and strengthen what was already an unmatched piece of border security legislation.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment