Last week, the U.S. Senate passed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, a massive bill that overhauls American immigration policy --and offers a bonanza of cash for the defense industry.
The bill --which must still be approved by the House and signed by the President before it becomes law-- mandates that the government spend approximately $38 billion on personnel and equipment meant to secure the nation's southern border, and even goes so far as to include shopping lists of specific gadgets and systems that must be purchased.
If enacted into law, the bill would be a large new source of revenue for companies like Northrop Grumman , Raytheon , Lockheed Martin , General Dynamics and Rockwell Collins .
Defense contractors have watched many of their once-lucrative Department of Defense contracts shrivel or disappear over the last year, thanks to the effects of budget sequestration and the conclusion of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But increasing militarization of America's southern border would mean new Department of Homeland Security contracts that help make up for those lost funds.
The Immigration Modernization Act was originally conceived by Senate Democrats working with the Obama administration as a way to reduce deportation of undocumented immigrants who live and work in the United States, and provide them with a route to citizenship. But an amendment to the bill proposed by Republican senators Bob Corker (Tenn.) and John Hoeven (N. Dakota) added requirements that the government spend approximately $38 billion on a surge of personnel and equipment to secure the country's southern border with Mexico. The amended bill was approved by the Senate on June 27 by a margin of 68 to 32, with all Democrats voting in favor, joined by fourteen Republicans. It now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.
In an interview with Defense News, Senator Corker defended the program's cost, and suggested that the House might "whittle it down" before passing their own version. Democrats are already expressing concern about the price tag, and the bill is likely to undergo significant changes before it becomes law.
But in its current state, the Immigration Modernization Act reads like a shopping list of high-tech and high-cost military surveillance and sensor systems, mandating the purchase of everything from helicopters to night vision goggles to drones.
1 littoral detection and classification network.
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