Senate Passes Long Overdue Border Security Bill

The Senate commenced for a special and important session today with just Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Benjamin Cardin, to pass the House-modified version of the $600 million border supplemental bill.

It’s 500 years too late to play border cops with illegal immigrants, but better late than never.

The bill is supposed to serve as a down-payment for comprehensive immigration reform. Wait, I thought we constantly asked for smaller pieces such as the DREAM Act and AgJobs as down-payments? Even the right-wingers are not happy. They want a wall across the United States.

Senator Schumer has finally fulfilled his promise of passing an immigration reform bill by Labor Day. Granted, he originally meant Labor Day in 2009 and a comprehensive immigration reform bill, but allocating money for border security was a monumental task for the Democrat-controlled Congress.

Senator Schumer was unavailable for comment. He gives extended speeches nowadays only to hide from pro-immigrant advocates after he is done speaking. President Obama praised the bill and is widely expected to sign it tomorrow.

After all, guarding arbitrary geo-political lines with guns and technology to keep out people is such a 21st century novel idea. Our border communities are under so much threat that residents cannot even feel it. With surveillance drones and an additional 1000 guards, now migrants trying to cross over the border are more likely to be captured, killed, or die due to harsher terrains. We just need to build moats and put landmines around the Southwest border to make us all safer from those Mexicans trying to leave the country and contain us from the imaginary threats beyond our human-drawn lines.

The best part about the bill is that it does not result in deficit spending. Our brave lawmakers decided to kill two birds with one stone: keep out and kill the undocumented Mexicans by having the skilled legal Indian workers and firms pay for it. U.S.-based companies with a workforce more than 50% non-American would have to pay 2,000 dollars more per visa for “H1B” visas for highly skilled workers or “L” visas. That’s a marvelous idea: lets fix the abusive H1B visa system with more abuse.

Now that the political theater is over, can we get back to passing real and comprehensive immigration reform?

Photo Credit: FireflytheGreat