Immigration Debate Is Revived in Senate

WASHINGTON — Breaking a weeks-long partisan deadlock, Senate leaders announced an agreement Thursday to resume debate on legislation that would provide legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants, create a guest worker program and bolster border security.

The agreement gives new momentum to a bill that seemed on the verge of Senate approval before collapsing in early April amid partisan bickering. Senate leaders said debate would start Monday, with the Senate aiming to pass legislation by Memorial Day.

The bill’s prospects are uncertain because a large group of House Republicans opposes a guest worker plan and enhanced legal status for illegal immigrants.

In the Senate, agreement to revive the legislation rested on an unusual arrangement for naming members of the committee that would negotiate with the House on a final version of the bill.

Reaching that agreement “has been extremely, extremely difficult,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). He added later: “I am very happy with where we are. There will be a fair debate on the Senate floor.”

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said, “We both anticipate a lot of challenging times.... in what we know will be a very difficult bill.”

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a key supporter of the Senate legislation, urged President Bush to get involved.

Bush has called on Congress to pass a guest worker program for more than two years. But some of the harshest critics of Bush’s vision are within his own party.

“It would make a good deal of difference if we could get the president involved,” Kennedy said. “That’s what we need more than anything else now.”

The House passed immigration legislation in December that was starkly different from the Senate bill, focusing on border security but not addressing the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States or the guest worker program sought by businesses and the president.

The House bill would make illegal presence in the United States a felony rather than a civil offense, a provision that helped spur protests nationwide.

Many House members say that giving legal status or citizenship to illegal immigrants would amount to amnesty for lawbreakers.

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), leader of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, condemned the Senate agreement and predicted conflict ahead.

“By caving in to the Democrats this morning, Bill Frist pushed the Senate toward the biggest illegal alien amnesty in American history,” Tancredo said in a statement. “Frist has put the Senate on a collision course with the House.”

The agreement Thursday resolved two stumbling blocks that caused Senate debate to stall just before the spring recess.

Senate Democrats had expressed strong concern that legalization measures and the guest worker provisions expected to be in the Senate bill would be gutted or eliminated during negotiations on a final bill with the House. They wanted assurances that the negotiating committee would not undermine those provisions.

But Frist and Reid could not agree on the composition of the negotiating committee or on Reid’s requests to limit the number of amendments to the bill during Senate debate.

Under Thursday’s agreement, the Senate is to send an unusually large contingent of 14 Republicans and 12 Democrats into discussions with the House. The numbers make it likely that a majority of conferees will back a comprehensive bill.

Frist and Reid agreed not to limit the number of amendments on the bill.

Reid had said he wanted to limit the number to protect the bill from changes to the guest worker program and legalization measures.

On Thursday, he said Democrats would fight off unfriendly amendments with the help of like-minded Republicans.

“We have most Democrats,” he said. “We only need a few Republicans.”