Thread: Napolitano praises McCaskill bill to bolster border security

Homeland Security boss praises McCaskill bill to bolster border security
BY BILL LAMBRECHT > blambrecht@post-dispatch.com Posted: Friday, August 6, 2010 11:09 am | (23) Comments

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said this afternoon that the White House has asked the House to concur swiftly in legislation for $600 million in emergency spending to better secure the U.S. border with Mexico.

Napolitano thanked Sen. Claire McCaskill, co-sponsor of the legislation, calling it "a great add-on" to the effort to secure the nation's southwest border.

The Senate, despite being crippled by partisan bickering, agreed unanimously on Thursday night to approve 1,000 new border patrol agents, 250 customs officers and unmanned drones for reconaissance.

The debate over Arizona's hard-edged new immigration law increased the pressure for Congress to act. While both major political parties had agreed to bolster security, paying for it was the stumbling block.

The legislation co-sponsored by McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., hit on a popular solution by taxing foreign-based personnel companies that rely on U.S. visa programs.

Such companies pay fees for visas like the H-1B enabling them to bring in workers; the legislation would raise those fees on big foreign companies by more than $2,000. At least one was quoted today as complaining about the impact on its business.

"I'm thrilled that these companies are grumbling about having to hire more Americans," McCaskill said this afternoon. "That is the whip cream and the cherry on top of this sundae."

Prospects for the legislation appear good: It moves as early as next week to the House, which passed similar legislation last week.

Schumer said this afternoon he'd gotten no response to entreaties to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to quickly take up the legislation. The House returns from recess briefly next week to consider legislation to bolster Medicaid and save teachers' jobs.

The Senate's voice vote on behalf of the measure Thursday evening was a surprise given ongoing bickering in the Capitol and the late hour before the Senate adjourned for a lengthy recess.

The break occurred when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., backed away from his insistence that the legislation be further strengthened with amendments.

"I believe we have a lot more to do, but this will contribute to our effort to get our border secured," he said.

Schumer remarked today that "the Senate came together and said 'let's put down our rhetorical swords and pick up our get-something-done tools'."

The plan would spend $176 million for 1,000 new border patrol agents who would be deployed in a strike force where needed. It calls for spending $32 million to finance two additional unmanned aerial vehicles. Schumer said that seven drones already patrol along the border.

The parties have been divided over comprehensive immigration reform since the Bush administration proposed a so-called guest-worker program, which critics call amnesty for illegal aliens.

Schumer said he hopes that the agreement on the border security plan can be a "facilitator" for passing broad immigration legislation.

McCaskill has been among those unwilling to go along with other Democrats amid efforts during the Obama administration to attempt the broader fix.

McCaskill said in an interview Thursday that she remains wary of a comprehensive approach absent more border security and a sustained effort to prevent employers from hiring workers in the United States illegally.

"We've got to demonstrate to the American people that we can control the border and enforce the law," she said.



Posted in Political-fix on Friday, August 6, 2010 11:09 am Updated: 3:43 pm.


http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt ... 2bc8b.html

Originally Posted by FedUpinFarmersBranch

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said this afternoon that the White House has asked the House to concur swiftly in legislation for $600 million in emergency spending to better secure the U.S. border with Mexico.

Let's see how she screws this one up. This plan sounds like another one of those failures that Chertoff was famous for: build a bad fence and watch the illegals stream in...

Schumer said he hopes that the agreement on the border security plan can be a "facilitator" for passing broad immigration legislation.

Kind of like a family coming home to their house to find the door lock broken and the door ajar. So they have the door replaced with a new and supposedly better lock. After all that they find the intruder still is in their house so of course they now consider said intruder to be family and give that intruder a key to the new lock so that other family members can also enter.

Quote:
"The legislation co-sponsored by McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., hit on a popular solution by taxing foreign-based personnel companies that rely on U.S. visa programs."

While perhaps emotionally satisfying, I do not see why companies operating to bring immigrants into the country legally should have to shoulder additional taxation to finance illegal immigration enforcement in the United States. This is a basic obligation of our govenment, to which we all already have paid taxes to pay for something which they simply refuse to do.

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said this afternoon that the White House has asked the House to concur swiftly in legislation for $600 million in emergency spending to better secure the U.S. border with Mexico.

Napolitano thanked Sen. Claire McCaskill, co-sponsor of the legislation, calling it "a great add-on" to the effort to secure the nation's southwest border

Yeah...of course they want it "swiftly" so Janet Napolitano can embark upon another amnesty tour while claiming mission accomplished for border security!

These people are criminal!