Ralph Lee Abraham: “I rise today to remark on final passage of an important piece of legislation, the Border Improvement and Immigration Act…”

“I rise today to remark on final passage of an important piece of legislation, the Border Improvement and Immigration Act of 1998. I am very pleased that we have been able to work together to produce a bill that the Senate can pass by unanimous consent. The substitute amendment makes a number of improvements on the committee-reported version. I have worked particularly closely with Senators Gramm and Kyl to include provisions that would provide authorization for significant additional resources for the inspections and drug enforcement operations of the United States Customs Service at the land borders. These resources would help ease traffic and trade back-ups and would detect and deter drug trafficking. It is my hope that they be deployed on a fair basis among the northern and the southern border ports. Senator Kyl and I have also worked closely with the State Department and with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to make sure that modifications were made in the implementation of border crossing improvements so that local communities, particularly in Arizona, would not be unduly harmed by laws and regulations that could not be implemented without keeping travelers from visiting, shopping, and doing business in the United States.”