Vote Near as Immigration Bill Is Revived

Congressional negotiators Wednesday agreed on the outline of a complex plan to revive landmark immigration reform legislation that sponsors had written off as dead only two weeks ago.

“It lives; the monster from the blue lagoon returns,” said Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach) of the controversial but amazingly resilient measure, which has survived numerous brushes with extinction.

A House vote on the revised package--designed to curb the flood of illegal immigrants streaming across the nation’s southern border--could come as early as today. If approved as expected, the package would still have other legislative hurdles to clear, including a legislative conference committee that would try to reconcile differences with a significantly different Senate version passed more than a year ago.

But House sponsors said that key senators already had agreed to the broad outlines of the new proposal, improving chances for action before congressional adjournment, expected no later than next week.

The breakthrough occurred when Republicans and Democrats agreed after several days of negotiations to a complex formula designed to allay the fears of Western agricultural interests that reforms would not decimate their work forces. Large numbers of illegal aliens currently work in the fruit and vegetable fields in the West and Southwest.

Congress has debated the immigration reform question since the early 1970s, but action has been consistently stymied by bitter disputes over legal, ethnic and ethical questions.

The movement toward passage this year reflects significant compromise by many factions, including civil liberties groups, farm labor advocates, business groups and organized labor.

Some of the thorny issues that may be nearing resolution are amnesty for millions of illegal aliens already in the country and rules that would for the first time make it illegal for American employers to knowingly hire undocumented aliens.

The compromise does not include the provision in the Senate legislation that allows growers to bring in foreign “guest workers” at harvest time. Instead, it grants temporary resident status to hundreds of thousands of farm workers now in the country.

Eligible for Benefits

Longtime farm workers could become eligible for permanent resident status, welfare benefits and so-called “green card” work permits in slightly more than three years from the date of enactment. Other farm workers who could only demonstrate shorter residency could win those benefits in a little more than four years.

The compromise would set limits--albeit generous limits--on the numbers of farm workers eligible for the accelerated legalization program. It would also require Congress to vote in six years on whether to renew the employer sanctions portion of the legislation.

One important part of the compromise that could run into stiff Senate resistance is a guarantee of free, government-paid legal assistance to many farm workers presently ineligible for such benefits. The Reagan Administration has opposed such aid.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), a longtime champion of the rights of farm laborers, expressed reservations about some elements in the new proposal but said the overall legislation was a vast improvement over past attempts. “This time they aren’t doing immigration reform on the backs of farm workers,” said Berman, who was instrumental in devising the latest compromise. “We have created a program that gives farm workers legal protections and legal rights.”