By Justin O'Brien
April 25, 2005

On the heels of protracted and vocal cross-party disapproval of border treatment in the President's budget proposal, the Senate voted April 20 in favor of an amendment to the supplemental spending bill, H.R. 1268. The bill, for security operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, would add 650 new border patrol officers to the President's FY06 proposal of 210.

The intelligence overhaul law earlier this year authorized the hiring of an additional 10,000 border patrol agents, effectively doubling the force to respond to continued high rates of illegal migration, security concerns and heightened crime rates in Arizona. The bill redirects almost $390 million in the bill to the border patrol from State Department programs. The amendment offered by Senator Robert C. Byrd (WV) also provides funding for the deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles along the 350-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. A continued spike in numbers of illegal crossings on the Arizona-Mexico border and rising crime rates in Arizona precipitated the Arizona Border Control Initiative (ABCI) in 2004.

The ABCI concentrates significant additional border patrol and law enforcement resources on the Arizona border along the Tucson sector. Self'styled "Minutemen" vigilante groups have set up controversial extensive security cordons along stretches of the border in Arizona to apprehend illegal migrants in support of border patrol operations. The amendment passed 65-34.