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 News from Around the Americas | July 2007 
US Senators Compromise on Border Security
 Andrew Taylor - Associated Press
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| | Protestors hold hands across a bridge between the Texas town of Roma and the Mexican town of Miguel Aleman to show their opposition to a planned border security wall along the U.S./Mexico border, July 14, 2007. (Reuters/Christina Cameron) |
Washington - Senate Democrats and Republicans came together Thursday to devote an additional $3 billion to gaining control over the U.S.-Mexico border, putting Congress on a path to override President Bush's promised veto of a $38 billion homeland security funding bill.
The deal, approved by an overwhelming 89-1 vote, resurrects a GOP plan launched Wednesday to pass some of the most popular elements of Bush's failed immigration bill, including money for additional Border Patrol agents and fencing along the southern border.
Democrats liked the money but objected to such GOP proposals as allowing law enforcement officers to question people about their immigration status and cracking down on those who overstay their visas.
After some parliamentary fireworks Wednesday, efforts to advance a compromise containing only the border security money broke down.
But Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, resolved their differences overnight and announced agreement Thursday morning. Cornyn won a promise to have some of the money used to go after immigrants who had entered the United States legally but had overstayed their visas.
Reid had apparently thought earlier that Cornyn wanted harsher language.
"I was wrong and Senator Cornyn was right," acknowledged a sheepish Reid.
The measure was initially opposed by the White House, top Republicans said, and it clearly puts the president in a box. Bush had already promised a veto of the underlying homeland security bill for spending $2.3 billion more than he requested.
But the White House signaled it would at least accept the added money for the border.
"To the extent Congress supports additional emergency funding, we want to work with them to make sure it is spent on the highest border security priorities," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
Now, Bush's GOP stalwarts in Congress such as Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., are poised to override the president's veto on the entire bill.
Cornyn predicted the bill would "pass by a veto-proof margin" and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters the bill might get 90 votes in the 100-member Senate.
The measure is likely to be the first spending bill to arrive on Bush's desk, despite his demand Thursday that the Democratic-controlled Congress focus on delivering the Pentagon's massive budget to his desk before going on its August vacation.
As adopted Thursday, the funding would go toward seizing "operational control" over the U.S.-Mexico border with additional Border Patrol agents, vehicle barriers, border fencing and observation towers, plus Cornyn's crackdown on people who overstay their visas.
Graham said the $3 billion would pay for "more boots on the ground, more people patrolling our border making it harder for somebody to come across illegally. We should have done this a long time ago."
Bush and GOP allies such as Graham and Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona had argued during last month's hotly contested immigration debate that a comprehensive approach to immigration reform was the only way to attract bipartisan support to such a polarizing issue.
In the wake of the failure to pass the comprehensive bill — decried as offering "amnesty" by conservative talk radio and opposing lawmakers — Graham and the others changed their minds and offered the border security plan, combined with the tough GOP policy provisions.
Graham and Kyl said the public won't accept more controversial elements, especially the plan to give millions of illegal immigrants a way to earn U.S. citizenship, until the border with Mexico is made more secure.
"Border security is the gate that you must pass through to get to overall comprehensive reform," said Graham, who is up for re-election next year and facing political heat at home for backing Bush's unpopular immigration plan. |
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