WASHINGTON: The US Senate yesterday approved a key provision on tightening border security of a landmark immigration reform bill, setting up a vote on final passage of the measure later this week.
If the overall bipartisan legislation passes the chamber as expected as early as Thursday, it would move to the Republican-led House of Representatives, where its fate is less certain.
The massive bill — backed by President Barack Obama and considerend the most comprehensive immigration reform effort in a generation — has been months in the making. But in recent weeks, two Republicans, Senators Bob Corker and John Hoeven, scrambled to forge a compromise “Border Surge” amendment in a bid to appease concerns within their party that the bill sets 11 million undocumented workers on a 13-year path to citizenship before the border is made entirely secure.
The Corker-Hoeven measure would bring $4.5bn in muscular new security measures to the southern US border, including 20,000 additional agents, a total of 1,125km of secure fencing and an expansion of drone surveillance.
It would also require that an electronic employment verification system known as “e-verify” and comprehensive, biometric entry-exit tracking be in place before illegal immigrants could obtain green cards.
“Americans want immigration reform but they want border security first, and that’s exactly what this amendment does,” Hoeven said on the Senate floor moments before the measure was agreed to by a vote of 69 to 29. AFP
