The U.S. Senate has added and passed two immigration-related amendments
to the upcoming Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations bill.
The first amendment, sponsored by Senator Sessions (R-AL), proposes to
reauthorize the Basic Pilot/E-Verify program and require that all
federal contractors and subcontractors use the web-based compliance
service. An additional sub-amendment was attached to this amendment by
Senator Leahy (D-VT) that would permanently authorize the EB-5 Regional
Centers program. These amendments were agreed to by a voice vote.
The second amendment, sponsored by Senator DeMint (R-SC), proposes to
require the completion of a minimum of 700 miles of reinforced fencing
along the Southwest border of the U.S. by the end of 2010. This
amendment passed by a vote of 54 to 44.
If the overall appropriations bill is passed by the Senate, the bill
will then go to conference, where representatives from the House and
the Senate will then work to reconcile differences between their two
versions of the bill.
