The bill, said Sen. Chuck Schumer , D-N.Y., “will significantly enhance the security and integrity of our nation's southern border – which currently lacks the resources needed to fully combat the drug smugglers, gun-runner, human-traffickers, money launderers and other organized criminals that seek to do harm to innocent Americans along our border.”

‘The measure had passed the Senate and House on a voice votes last week. But because of a constitutional requirement that measures that  raise money have to begin in the House, the Senate needed to take this action or wait until September when the August recess is over.

Included in the $600 million is $176 million for 1,000 new Border Patrol agents to form a “strike force” that would be deployed along the Southwest border as needed; $32 million for drones to do unmanned surveillance on the border; $80 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including $50 million for new personnel.

The bill is paid for by increasing fees on visas for temporary skilled workers from those companies that have more than 50 percent of their workers on the payroll via an H-1B visa or who are multi-national corporations who liberally transfer their employees from overseas offices to the United States.

Schumer, who chairs the Senate's immigration subcommittee,  was clear in his statement Thursday that the increasing of the fees was not aimed at most American companies who hire foreign technical workers. It's designed to get at companies whose sole purpose is to import foreign workers as a de facto foreign worker temp agency. These foreign workers are farmed out to companies for specific projects at wages, Schumer said, that are cheaper than Americans would command.

Schumer emphasized that he hopes this border security measure will serve to jump-start the broader debate on a comprehensive immigration bill. And in such a bill, he said, he wants to reform the system to “discourage businesses from using our immigration laws as a means to obtain temporary and less-expensive foreign labor to replace capable American workers.”