The $600 million 2010 emergency spending bill for border security includes $176 million for 1,000 additional Border Patrol agents and $68 million to hire 250 new Customs and Border Protection officers at ports of entry along the Southwest border and maintain 270 CBP officers funded through declining user fees.
The bill, HR-5875, also includes $80 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hire more than 250 special agents, investigators, intelligence analysts, and mission support staff and for targeted activities directed at reducing the threat of narcotics smuggling and associated violence.
According to the House appropriations committee, the bill is fully offset, partly by $100 million in unspent funds in DHS’s border security, fencing, infrastructure, and technology appropriation due to an ongoing reassessment of the SBInet program.
The bill caused a schism recently with some foreign governments such as India’s because it is to be largely funded by increased visa fees on companies with more than 50 employees and for whom most of their workforces consist of visa-holding foreign workers.