Pro-immigration senators are now proposing a “border surge.”

In an effort to secure passage of the embattled immigration bill, two Republicans, Bob Corker and John Hoeven, are proposing an amendment that would, according to The New York Times, call for an increase in “the current border patrol force to 40,000 agents from 21,000, as well as for the completion of 700 miles of fence on the nation’s southern border.”

The Times continued, “The additional border agents, the senators said, would cost roughly $25 billion.”

Senator John McCain, a member of the Gang of Eight that drafted the original legislation, spoke of his support of the amendment to Fox News on Friday, saying, “If there’s anyone who still will argue that the border’s not secure after this, then border security is not their reason for opposing a path to citizenship for the people who are in this country illegally.”

McCain is hinting at something that I’ll say outright: opposition to a path to citizenship among many Republicans isn’t about border security; it’s about complexions and elections.