The Secure Fence Act mandates the construction of more than 700 miles of double-reinforced fence along the border with Mexico, through the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. It authorizes increased lighting, vehicle barriers, border checkpoints and requires the installation of more advanced equipment, such as sensors, cameras, satellites, and unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Agricultural Job Opportunities Benefits & Security Act of 2006 is introduced in the U.S. Congress, which would provide agricultural employers with a stable, legal labor force and protect farm workers from exploitative working conditions. Representing compromises after years of negotiations between the United Farm Workers (UFW), major agricultural employers, and key federal legislators, it would create an “earned adjustment” program. This program would allow many undocumented farm workers and agricultural guest workers to obtain temporary immigration status with the possibility of becoming permanent residents, and later citizens, of the U.S. It revises the existing agricultural guest workers program known as the “H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program.” The act did not pass.