Mr. President. I rise today to introduce a bill that I believe offers us an opportunity to move forward in the immigration debate. My bill takes a firstthingsfirst approach. It is imperative that we secure our borders now. This first step cannotand should not have towait for a "comprehensive" solution. Once we secure our borders. we can look at all of the other illegal immigration related issues that remain. There is a bipartisan consensus on what needs to be done on border security and the provisions that make up this consensus were included with other more controversial elements in S. 2611the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006. While the other body is holding hearings on the "comprehensive" part of that bill. we should not hold our border security hostage. My bill will significantly increase the assets available for controlling our borders. It provides more inspectors. more marshals. and more border patrol agents on both the northern and southern borders. It provides new aerial vehicles and virtual fencingcamera. sensors. satellite and radar coverage. et cetera. It increases our surveillance assets and their deployment. and provides for new checkpoints and ports of entry.
Keywords matched
border security Immigration immigration border patrol illegal immigration