Senate immigration deal would double number of U.S. border agents

By Richard Cowan and Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A army of new federal agents and high-tech surveillance devices would be dispatched to the U.S.-Mexican border under a deal reached on Thursday that is aimed at winning increased Republican support for an immigration bill in the U.S. Senate.

Senate budget hawks questioned the costs and benefits of the extra security, but their concerns were overshadowed by the deal's main goal: to win votes for a sweeping revision of U.S. immigration law that will open a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American lawmaker from Florida who helped craft the bipartisan bill as part of a "Gang of Eight" in the Senate, said the deal was a "dramatic improvement in border security" during an interview on Fox News.

Rubio, touted as a possible 2016 presidential candidate, had hinged his full support on improvements in border security. His endorsement is seen as crucial to winning conservative backing for the biggest changes in U.S. immigration law in a generation.

The proposal, which could be formally offered as an amendment to the sprawling immigration bill as early as Thursday, would double the overall number of U.S. border patrol agents, according to senior Senate Democratic aides.

That would mean assigning 21,000 new officers to the southwestern border in an attempt to shut down future illegal crossings by foreigners.

The plan was being reviewed by the White House and outside interest groups, according to a Senate Democratic aide.

The bill, which is supported by President Barack Obama, currently calls for adding 3,500 Customs and Border Protection officers by 2017.

The border security deal also calls for completing the construction of 700 miles of border fencing or walls, Senate aides said. About 650 miles have been built in one form or another, though further enforcement may be required.

At a price tag of around $40 billion to $50 billon, the amendment, if passed, would represent a potentially massive investment of federal resources in securing the border.

A senior Republican aide, however, complained that the proposal "beefs up promises of stronger security," but includes no requirement for a significant reduction in illegal crossings before undocumented immigrants could advance onto the proposed path to citizenship.

But the Senate voted 54-43 on Thursday to kill an amendment by Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Republican, which would have delayed permanent legal status for the 11 million currently undocumented immigrants until the government met strict border enforcement goals.

On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Senate's immigration bill would save the federal government nearly $900 billion over 20 years as illegal immigrants became legal, taxpaying residents.

A Democratic aide said those projected savings gave senators the leeway to craft such an expensive border security amendment.

House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican who has promised to consider an immigration bill this year, told reporters that the CBO deficit-reduction estimates, if "anywhere close to being accurate, would be a real boon for the country."

Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, an important backer of the legislation, questioned the high cost of the border security deal. "I don't know if it's totally well spent," he said, but added, "I think it's important that we do this to give people confidence that we have border security, so in that respect it's well spent."

While the legislation authorizes the beefed-up security programs, it would be up to Congress in the future to appropriate the funding.

The deal was a significant win for Republicans who have clamored for tougher border security measures. Democrats could claim a victory in fending off the attempts to delay legalizing the undocumented until improved border security was in place.

A Senate aide said that the newly legalized residents would not get "green cards" allowing permanent resident status until the border security measures were in place. Gaining permanent resident status would take 10 years under the bill, giving the federal government the time to install the added border manpower and equipment.

REPUBLICAN VOTES

During debate of the bill by the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, some lawmakers were skeptical that such a huge investment would be a smart use of federal dollars and they questioned whether 700 miles of new fencing was even practical.

But the bill's supporters are hoping to capture the votes of more undecided Republican senators with this deal, improving the chances of passing immigration reform in the more conservative House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans.

Besides the additional agents and fencing, the measure also calls for employing large amounts of unmanned aerial drones, radars and other surveillance devices to catch or deter illegal crossings.

But the plan brought a harsh reaction from at least one civil liberties and human rights group.

Christian Ramirez, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, said the huge buildup in agents, surveillance hardware and fencing "is expensive and extreme."

In a telephone interview with Reuters, Ramirez expressed fears that adding so many more armed officers would compound problems already being experienced involving fatal shootings on either side of the border.

"The current force on the U.S.-Mexico border is already excessive. What makes matters worse is that there are no checks and balances" on border patrol activities, Ramirez said.

Border patrol officials were not immediately available for comment.

(Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai and David Lawder; Editing by Fred Barbash, Eric Beech and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-immigration-deal-double-number-u-border-agents-154801887.html

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