CONGRESSWOMAN JOHNSON VOTES TO BOOST BORDER SECURITY

Washington, DC – (Tuesday, August 10, 2010) Congresswoman Johnson voted today to boost our nation’s border security, putting more agents on patrol and protecting communities along the southern border.  The Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Border Security legislation provides $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.

“A nation can't be secure if its borders aren't secure.  In the wake of September 11th, it's unbelievable that we've lost control over who is in our country and where they are,” said Congresswoman Johnson.  “By providing this funding, we are strengthening our border security and reducing violence along the Southwest border.”

The legislation will provide funds to deploy unmanned drones to fly along our southern border and provide our patrol officers on the ground with real-time information on unlawful border crossings.  It will also improve 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.

“Strengthening border security is one of the central pillars of bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform.  I’m glad we could come together to pass this important legislation today.  We need to continue to work on other key components of comprehensive reform.  We are a nation of laws, but we are also a nation of immigrants,” said Congresswoman Johnson.

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.

 
                                                                                                                 ###

U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson is the highest-ranking Texan on the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure and a senior member of the Science Committee. She represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas, which, includes Downtown Dallas, Fair Park, Oak Lawn, Turtle Creek, Old East Dallas, Pleasant Grove, & South Oak Cliff; all of Balch Springs, DeSoto, Hutchins, Lancaster & Wilmer and parts of Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Ferris, Glenn Heights and Ovilla.