The bipartisan Gang of Eight has released its new comprehensive immigration proposal. Before the bill was made public, supporters said it would require the government to maintain 100 percent surveillance of the U.S. border with Mexico and catch 90 percent of those who try to cross it illegally. They spoke very clearly: 100 percent surveillance and 90 percent apprehension.
Now the bill is out, and the wording is not quite as clear. The bottom line is that it does not mandate 100 percent surveillance and leaves questions about what 90 percent apprehension actually means.
The bill requires the secretary of Homeland Security — at the moment Janet Napolitano, who maintains that the U.S. border with Mexico is already secure — to “submit a strategy, to be known as the ‘Comprehensive Southern Border Security Strategy,’ for achieving and maintaining effective control between the ports of entry in all high risk border sectors along the Southern border…”