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Border Patrol may be ordered to hire 12KThe figure more than doubles the agency's size over 2 years, but no money was provided for new hires.MIKE MADDEN
Citizen Washington Bureau
Marchh10, 2006
www.tucsoncitizen.com/news/local/031006a1_BORDERWASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee approved ordering the Border Patrol to hire 12,000 new agents in the next two years, more than doubling the current force.
Border Patrol officials and experts say that number exceeds what the agency can handle in terms of training and the panel didn't include any money to fund the new hires.Yesterday lawmakers pushed ahead with immigration reform plans, hoping to finish work by the March 27 deadline imposed by GOP leaders.
Along with more agents, they propose replacing old fences along the border with 25 miles of new barricades in the desert west of Naco.
They put off action on contentious issues such as whether to make illegal presence in the United States a federal crime.Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who is running for re-election in November and who wrote the fence plan, told other lawmakers that similar fencing near El Paso and San Diego helped move human and drug smuggling to Arizona.
"They've been squeezed out of Texas and California, and I think we deserve a little relief in Arizona now," Kyl said.
A border security bill passed the House in December, calling for 700 miles of fencing at a cost of more than $2.2 billion.
Kyl's plan would replace old fences with double- or triple-layered barriers like the ones used in California and Texas. At least 200 miles of vehicle barriers and all-weather border roads also would be built.
Aides said Kyl has no estimate of how much his proposal would cost. Estimates for fencing along other parts of the border range between $1 million and $3 million per mile, which could put the taxpayer tab for Kyl's proposal well into the hundreds of millions of dollars if Congress approves the bill.
Adding 12,000 agents in two years would require significant appropriations from Congress.
"Is this a sincere effort, or is this just political posturing?" asked T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union for 10,500 agents. "I'm afraid that it falls into the latter category."