Securing America's Borders Act
Latest action. clotureThe Senate's only procedure for ending debate over objection. Most legislation needs 60 votes; nominations need a simple majority.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) on the bill not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 36 - 62. Record Vote Number: 90. (consideration: continuing resolutionA stopgap law funding the government at existing levels when the annual appropriations bills are not done by October 1.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) S3358; text: CR S3358)
Securing America's Borders Act - Provides for increases in the numbers of federal immigration enforcement-related positions and technological assets for use along the borders, including Department of Defense (DOD) equipment.
Provides for: (1) border control facilities construction; (2) land border port of entry construction and improvements; (3) border patrol checkpoints; and (4) fencing, barrier, and road construction and improvements in the Yuma and Tucson sectors.
Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary) to develop: (1) a comprehensive land and maritime border surveillance plan; (2) a National Strategy for Border Security; and (3) a southern border study.
Directs the Secretary of State to: (1) report to Congress on improving the exchange of North American security information; (2) work with Canada and Mexico to assist Guatemala and Belize in border security activities; and (3) work with appropriate countries to share information and track Central American gang members.
Provides for biometric data (including entry-exit data collection), document, and other border security enhancements.
Makes all aliens inadmissible on terrorism-related grounds ineligible for asylum. Increases the class of aliens ineligible on security-related grounds for cancellation of removal or voluntary departure.
Makes alien members of criminal street gangs inadmissible and deportable. Denies temporary protected status to gang members.
Revises alien smuggling provisions. Directs the Secretary to establish the American Local and Interior Enforcement Needs (ALIEN) Task Force to respond to the use of government transportation infrastructure to further unlawful alien trafficking.
Provides a mandatory minimum sentence for carrying or using a firearm during an alien smuggling crime.
Revises illegal entry, reentry after removal, and related criminal penalty provisions. Makes it a crime to knowingly be illegally present in the United States.
Revises passport and visa provisions. Criminalizes: (1) trafficking in passports; (2) executing a scheme to defraud a person in connection with any federal immigration matter; and (3) knowing use of any immigration document issued or designed for use by another.
Makes an alien convicted of a passport or visa violation inadmissible and removable.
The summary continues for 29 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on March 16, 2006. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Cloture on the bill not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 36 - 62. Record Vote Number: 90. (consideration: CR S3358; text: CR S3358)
Civibrief does not map this action to a stage in the process. See the official record.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
The latest action on file does not map to a stage Civibrief recognizes, so the page will not name one. The record's own words are the reliable fact here.
The record's latest action, on April 7, 2006: Cloture on the bill not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 36 - 62. Record Vote Number: 90. (consideration: CR S3358; text: CR S3358)
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 109th Congress (2005-06), 482 of the 10,701 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 4.5 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one has no outstanding steps listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
WILLIAM FRIST (R-TN) introduced it on March 16, 2006. No cosponsors are recorded.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on March 16, 2006, 7483 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 7461 days ago, on April 7, 2006.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 109th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2007 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateCloture on the bill not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 36 - 62. Record Vote Number: 90. (consideration: CR S3358; text: CR S3358)
- HouseNot stated in the latest action
- PresidentNot stated in the latest action