[h=3]By SARA MURRAY[/h]
Associated Press U.S. Border Patrol agent Jerry Conlin looks out over Tijuana, Mexico, next to the old border wall along the U.S.- Mexico border earlier this month.
Republican lawmakers are set to unveil a border-security plan Thursday afternoon that could secure broad bipartisan support for immigration legislation, paving the way for it to sail through the Senate.
"This is border security on steroids," said Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), who helped craft the compromise.
The agreement may prove to be the linchpin that provides cover for fence-sitting Republicans to sign on to the sweeping immigration bill in the Senate. The bill provides a path to citizenship for millions currently living in the U.S. illegally, increases border security and creates new visa programs.
"We know that we need a very large number of Republicans and a very large vote. We were not getting that," said Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican member of the group that wrote the bill. The latest compromise "brings on a lot of Republicans," said Mr. McCain, though he declined to estimate how many.
The agreement would double the number of border-control agents to roughly 40,000, require 700 miles of fencing on the southern border to be completed and wrap in a handful of other measures designed to wrangle GOP votes.
Lawmakers effectively killed an amendment Thursday by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, that would have required a stricter border metric. His proposal would have required border-patrol agents to apprehend 90% of illegal immigrants who attempted to cross the border before immigrants living in the U.S. illegally could receive green cards.
Senators voted 54 to 43 in favor of tabling the amendment Thursday, which effectively kills it. Immigration supporters were concerned that such a metric—known as a trigger—would inhibit the path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. Every member of the group of eight bipartisan senators that drafted the immigration bill voted to table Mr. Cornyn's amendment, except for Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.).
Instead of including such a trigger in the latest border compromise, Mr. Corker and Sen. John Hoeven (R., N.D.) crafted a plan that commits more resources on the border before unauthorized immigrants can get green cards. Their package is expected to address concerns from other Republicans, such as a provision requiring immigrants to pay back taxes.
"It solved the riddle of how we deal with border security," Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), who helped write the immigration bill, said of the latest security compromise. "If this amendment doesn't convince people we're securing the border than nothing will."
The new provisions are sure to be costly, although lawmakers said there were revenue-raisers in the latest compromise too.
"I don't know if it's totally well-spent," Mr. McCain said, but "I think that it's important that we do this to give people confidence that we have border security, so in that sense I think it's well spent."
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said earlier this week that the Senate's immigration bill would shrink deficits by about $175 billion over a decade and by some $670 billion in the following decade. The score provided lawmakers with some wiggle room to spend more on border security measures.
"We're spending money but I think we're showing people what you get for your money," said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican author of the immigration bill. After the CBO score came out, he said he sat down with Messrs. Schumer and Corker. His message: "Go big. Think big."
—Kristina Peterson and Siobhan Hughes contributed to this article. Write to Sara Murray at [email protected]
Republican lawmakers are set to unveil a border-security plan Thursday afternoon that could secure broad bipartisan support for immigration legislation, paving the way for it to sail through the Senate.
"This is border security on steroids," said Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), who helped craft the compromise.
The agreement may prove to be the linchpin that provides cover for fence-sitting Republicans to sign on to the sweeping immigration bill in the Senate. The bill provides a path to citizenship for millions currently living in the U.S. illegally, increases border security and creates new visa programs.
"We know that we need a very large number of Republicans and a very large vote. We were not getting that," said Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican member of the group that wrote the bill. The latest compromise "brings on a lot of Republicans," said Mr. McCain, though he declined to estimate how many.
The agreement would double the number of border-control agents to roughly 40,000, require 700 miles of fencing on the southern border to be completed and wrap in a handful of other measures designed to wrangle GOP votes.
Lawmakers effectively killed an amendment Thursday by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, that would have required a stricter border metric. His proposal would have required border-patrol agents to apprehend 90% of illegal immigrants who attempted to cross the border before immigrants living in the U.S. illegally could receive green cards.
Senators voted 54 to 43 in favor of tabling the amendment Thursday, which effectively kills it. Immigration supporters were concerned that such a metric—known as a trigger—would inhibit the path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. Every member of the group of eight bipartisan senators that drafted the immigration bill voted to table Mr. Cornyn's amendment, except for Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.).
Instead of including such a trigger in the latest border compromise, Mr. Corker and Sen. John Hoeven (R., N.D.) crafted a plan that commits more resources on the border before unauthorized immigrants can get green cards. Their package is expected to address concerns from other Republicans, such as a provision requiring immigrants to pay back taxes.
"It solved the riddle of how we deal with border security," Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), who helped write the immigration bill, said of the latest security compromise. "If this amendment doesn't convince people we're securing the border than nothing will."
The new provisions are sure to be costly, although lawmakers said there were revenue-raisers in the latest compromise too.
"I don't know if it's totally well-spent," Mr. McCain said, but "I think that it's important that we do this to give people confidence that we have border security, so in that sense I think it's well spent."
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said earlier this week that the Senate's immigration bill would shrink deficits by about $175 billion over a decade and by some $670 billion in the following decade. The score provided lawmakers with some wiggle room to spend more on border security measures.
"We're spending money but I think we're showing people what you get for your money," said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican author of the immigration bill. After the CBO score came out, he said he sat down with Messrs. Schumer and Corker. His message: "Go big. Think big."
—Kristina Peterson and Siobhan Hughes contributed to this article. Write to Sara Murray at [email protected]