WASHINGTON: US Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid yesterday set a vote for Monday on a border-security deal that is expected to push a landmark US immigration bill to passage by the end of next week.
The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to pass the White House-backed bill with broad bipartisan support, sending it to the Republican-led House of Representatives, where it faces more resistance. Reid scheduled the vote after negotiators completed writing the deal into the form of an amendment.
The deal, reached on Thursday in a bid to ease border security concerns and build Republican support, would double the number of federal agents on the US-Mexican border to about 40,000 and provide them more high-tech surveillance equipment, including manned and unmanned aerial vehicles.
The bill faces a major challenge in the House, where many Republicans oppose its provisions for a pathway to citizenship for up to 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Reuters
