Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Border Security
The Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Border Security (H.R. 6080) boosts our nation's border security, putting more agents on patrol and protecting communities along the southern border, by providing $600 million in emergency funding to shore up our border -- including more than $240 million to hire 1,000 new Border Patrol agents and 250 new Customs and Border Protection agents.
The legislation provides funds to deploy unmanned drones to fly along our southern border and provides our patrol officers on the ground with real-time information on unlawful border crossings. It also improves communications capabilities between federal border enforcement and state and local officers along the border. It helps Immigration and Customs Enforcement conduct investigations of drug-runners, money-launderers, and human traffickers. And, it provides nearly $200 million to increase the number of ATF, DEA and FBI agents on our border and to bolster the number of prosecutors and court resources along our border so that wrongdoers can be immediately brought to justice.
This legislation is fiscally responsible and fully paid for, mostly by increasing, over five years, the cost of two visas which permit foreign workers to come and work in the United States. These fee increases, which would raise $550 million, would apply only to companies with more than 50 employees AND for whom the majority of their workforce is visa-holding foreign workers.