Guest-Worker Plan Gets Senate Boost

A controversial proposal to give some of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States a path toward citizenship moved forward in a Senate committee Thursday, along with a plan that would allow additional foreigners to enter the country as guest workers -- a priority for President Bush, the business community and many Latino groups.

The measures face many hurdles to becoming law and significant opposition in both chambers of Congress, but their progress Thursday makes it increasingly likely that the Republican Party will be forced into a prominent election-year showdown over the most divisive aspects of immigration law.

The advance came when several members of the Senate Judiciary Committee agreed on the two proposals early Thursday, drawing elements from several competing plans. Although the compromise is not assured passage, people following the process said the committee would probably approve it during a vote scheduled for March 27.

The guest-worker measure appeared to have the most clear support. “The votes are there,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who opposes giving permanent status to illegal immigrants.

“There is a very big chance” for the guest-worker plan’s success in the committee, said Angelo Amador, director of immigration policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In the House, where a large and vocal group of members says a guest-worker plan would only draw more illegal workers to the United States, legislation was approved last year that focused almost entirely on securing the nation’s borders and toughening enforcement of illegal hiring. The legislation created no new mechanisms for illegal workers to gain permanent status or for foreigners to become guest workers.

In the Senate, however, many members believe an enforcement crackdown should be paired with measures allowing employers to hire foreign workers legally, an idea that many business groups say is vital to the smooth functioning of the economy. President Bush has been pushing for a guest-worker program for two years.

The prospects in the Senate are more uncertain for the deal to create a pathway for some of the nation’s illegal immigrants to gain permanent status and citizenship. Still, supporters said the compromise significantly boosted chances for approval.

In addition to facing opposition in the House, the proposals appeared to become ensnared in the jockeying for the 2008 presidential campaign.

Shortly after Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the Judiciary Committee chairman, announced that his panel was nearing agreement on the compromise, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said he would introduce a bill that would be limited to border security and enforcement measures.

Frist’s move was dismissed by some Capitol Hill observers as an effort to bolster his credentials with conservatives as he prepares for a possible presidential run. By introducing a bill with no guest-worker provisions, they said, Frist was hoping to highlight the difference between his approach to immigration and that of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a potential rival and co-sponsor of guest-worker legislation.

Frist told reporters he was acting to ensure that a bill came to the floor in time to be debated and voted on before the Senate recesses for the summer.

House members who favor an enforcement-only approach to immigration said the Senate committee would kill the chances for any legislation to pass if it embraced the guest-worker plan or a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country.

“If the Senate were to pass such a proposal, we believe it would doom any chance of a real reform bill reaching the president’s desk this year,” said a letter to Specter signed by 71 House members, 70 of them Republicans.

But a guest-worker plan is a priority for business groups, including many in the agricultural sector.

Joe Colace, a produce grower, packer and shipper in Brawley, Calif., said he could not find enough pickers to harvest his lemon crop in Imperial County in December.

He typically runs eight crews of 25 to 30 workers each, he said, but last year he had to make do with five to six crews of 18 to 20 workers.

“We could not stay up with demand and we were losing ground on a daily basis,” Colace said. “The risk is already great enough without having to worry about having enough employees to harvest the crop.” The lemons he lost in the fields, he said, cost his company, Five Crowns Marketing, about $100,000.

Colace said he and other growers always tried to hire American workers, but often came up short. Last year he submitted a request for 108 workers to his local unemployment agency, he said, and got two workers in response.

Under the compromise brokered by Specter, foreigners would be able to come to the United States to work for eight years, during which they could apply to become permanent residents if they met a set of criteria.

An approved worker would start with a two-year visa. After that, the worker would have to return to the home country for a year, though the employer could apply for a waiver if it showed that the employee’s departure would harm business.

The worker could then return with a three-year visa, which could be renewed once. After that renewal -- in the worker’s sixth year in the program -- the worker or the employer could petition for permanent legal residency, also known as obtaining a green card.

Under current law, gaining permanent legal residency is a step toward citizenship.

The program would be capped at 400,000 visas a year.

Senators also said they would work on including proposals for guest workers aimed exclusively at agricultural workers, which have been put forward by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho).

“We’re trying to work through the process,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who said his goal was to “restore the concept of circular migration to future guest workers.”

The compromise brokered by Specter also includes a way for people in the country illegally to gain legal status.

Undocumented immigrants could pay a $1,000 fine, undergo a criminal background check and receive a six-year visa that would allow them to travel into and out of the country.

After six years, they could apply for permanent legal residency and eventually for citizenship if they passed another background check, paid another $1,000 fine and back taxes, and showed they were learning English.

Some lawmakers oppose any plan that leads to citizenship, calling it a form of amnesty for people who have broken the law by entering the country illegally.

In a sign of how complicated the issues are, Cornyn, who helped craft the compromise guest-worker plan, said he would “probably end up voting against the bill if it contains amnesty provisions,” a reference to the measure that gives illegal immigrants a way to obtain citizenship.

Times staff writer Abigail Goldman in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.