House passes tough immigration bill, calling for a fence on U.S.-Mexican border

of the tough border security bill approved by the House last Friday. The bill:

* Makes — for the first time ever, and with no exceptions — illegal presence in the country a federal crime

* Requires all employers to use within six years a database to verify Social Security numbers of employees or face civil or criminal penalties for hiring illegal workers

* Requires mandatory detention for all non-Mexican illegal immigrants arrested at ports of entry or at land and sea borders by 1 October 2006

* Establishes mandatory sentences for smuggling illegal immigrants and for re-entering the country illegally after deportation

* Makes a drunken driving conviction a deportable offense

* Requires building five two-layer fences in parts of California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on the U.S.-Mexican border. Places priority on fence at Laredo, Texas

* Requires the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to develop a joint plan on increased use of military surveillance equipment on the border

* Prohibits the attorney general from providing grant money to any federal, state, or local government agency or entity that fails to provide DHS with information on a person’s citizenship or immigration status

* Eliminates the visa lottery program

* Makes wording of oath of citizenship recited in naturalization ceremonies law to prevent changes without congressional action

We also notice one additional provision: As we reported [see issue of 11/28/05], lawmakers were displeased to discover that border patrol uniforms were made in Mexico. For good measure, therefore, the following provision was added to the immigration bill:

* Requires border patroluniforms to be made in the United States, not Mexico