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SENATE IMMIGRATION SUBCOMMITTEE APPROVES INCREASED FUNDING FOR BORDER PATROL
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for the Commerce, Justice and States Departments has approved $ 83 million for the hiring of 1000 new Border Patrol agents during fiscal year 2000, which will begin on October 1, 1999. The funding provision also contains language that restricts the use that can be made of the money: if it is not used to hire new agents, it must be used to give existing agents raises and to raise the base salary of entering agents.
In recent months there has been a great deal of tension between Congress and the Clinton administration about Border Patrol hiring. The administration feels the agency is growing too quickly (it has more than doubled since 1993, from 4000 to 9000 agents). Indeed, a recent study showed that almost forty percent of Border Patrol agents have less than two years experience. Also, immigrant rights advocates question the Border Patrol’s role in the growing reports of human rights violations along the US-Mexico border. 
Congress, on the other hand, is angry the administration does not on its own hire the 1000 Border Patrol agents each year it is required to under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Congress is also concerned about increasing reports of violence along the southwest border, and feels increasing the Border Patrol presence in the region would cut down on both immigrant and drug smuggling.