WASHINGTON — Eager to demonstrate to a skeptical public that Congress is determined to tackle illegal immigration, the Senate today added $3 billion to a homeland security spending bill to pay for thousands more Border Patrol agents, 700 miles of border fencing and sophisticated technology designed to bring the U.S.-Mexico boundary under operational control within two years.
The amendment, offered by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Arkansas Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, passed on a 89-1 vote. Only Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, objected, arguing that the Department of Homeland Security already is swimming in money to ramp up its immigration enforcement efforts.
The bill would include:
-- Bring the Border Patrol to 23,000 agents by 2012
-- Construct all 700 miles of fencing at the U.S.-Mexico border and 300 miles of vehicle barriers.
-- Permit the purchase of four unmanned aerial vehicles to surveil the border region for illegal crossers and add 105 ground-based radar and camera towers integral to the operation of a "virtual" fence.
-- Nearly double the detention space for apprehended illegal immigrants to 45,000 beds.
-- Add 6,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, 2,500 more Customs and Border Protection officers and 1,000 investigators to combat alien smuggling.
