Panel acts to expand immigrant rights

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday approved a major overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, including a provision allowing undocumented immigrants to earn legal status, and a new temporary worker program in which immigrants would be able to fill US-based jobs for up to six years.

The vote cleared the first major hurdle to the most sweeping changes to American immigration laws in two decades, although significant obstacles remain before any measure becomes law.

Lawmakers who celebrated victory yesterday credited massive public rallies held across the nation in recent days with convincing senators that a comprehensive approach to immigration is in order.

''Americans wanted fairness, and they got it this evening," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, whose proposals formed the basis of the committee's final bill. ''The demonstrations at the grass roots had a powerful impact. This was a nation-shaking event."

Under the measure, the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants would be able to apply for citizenship after six more years of residency if they hold stable jobs, pay back taxes and fines, maintain clean criminal records, and learn English.

In addition, the bill authorizes 400,000 new work visas for foreign nationals who are now living in other countries to work in jobs that employers say Americans don't want. The ''guest worker" program would allow immigrants to work legally in the United States for up to six years, and apply for citizenship in their fourth year.

The vote surprised many observers who expected the Republican-controlled committee to approve a bill that would focus primarily on enforcing the nation's borders. Major legislation is always difficult in an election year, and many across the country want fewer immigrants in the United States, believing that immigrants have been taking jobs from Americans.

Despite yesterday's vote, Senate majority leader Bill Frist warned that he may substitute his bill, which only enforces borders, and ask the full Senate to vote on it instead of the far broader and more lenient measure approved yesterday by the judiciary committee.

In any event, a bruising battle on the Senate floor is expected this week. And even if the Senate approves the committee's bill, any measure that appears to provide ''amnesty" to those who are here illegally faces fierce opposition in the House, which in December passed a bill that would erect a fence along the Mexican border and make it a crime to provide social services to undocumented immigrants.

And while President Bush is a strong supporter of a guest worker program, he has signaled hesitancy to allowing undocumented immigrants to gain legal status.

Still, the judiciary committee's action drew cheers from immigrants' groups and their advocates, who were pessimistic about lawmakers' appetite for boosting the prospects of undocumented immigrants. After the vote, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, called on Frist to respect the committee process and allow a vote on the measure approved yesterday.

''What's the point of having committees if you don't do that?" said McCain, who worked closely with Kennedy in crafting the bill.

The judiciary committee was meeting on a day of high drama and expectations on Capitol Hill and across the nation. Immigrants rallied on Boston Common and in cities including Detroit, Dallas, and San Francisco, on the heels of a rally Saturday that drew an estimated 500,000 people in Los Angeles.

In Washington, dozens of religious leaders wore handcuffs at a rally outside the Capitol to protest the House-passed bill that would make it a crime for clergy members or others to provide aid to illegal immigrants. Later in the day, as senators filed into the hearing room after lunch, the clergy members hummed, ''We Shall Overcome."

As the judiciary committee began its session yesterday morning, the president appeared at a naturalization ceremony for 30 American citizens from 20 countries to renew his push for a ''guest worker" program.

Bush urged members of Congress not to ''play on people's fears," and argued that setting up a new legal channel for immigrants to work in the United States would lower the number of people who enter the country illegally.

''This program would help meet the demands of a growing economy, and would allow honest workers to provide for their families while respecting the law," the president said.

The committee was forced to act quickly by Frist, who is eager to address the issue of immigration as he ponders a presidential run in 2008. Yesterday, the majority leader reiterated his vow to bring his narrow border-enforcement bill to the Senate floor if the committee couldn't finish work on a broader measure by the end of the day.

Although Frist's threat drew grumbling from committee members, it also invigorated them to finish long-stalled work on the bill. The biggest sticking point was how to handle immigrants who are in the country illegally now, with opinions ranging from deportation to providing paths by which they can obtain citizenship.

Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican who opposes allowing undocumented immigrants to become citizens without returning to their home countries first, said he fears the bill would create a large pool of workers who would displace Americans from their jobs, particularly in a starker economic climate.

''Today [the need for an immigrant workforce] is significant, but at some point in the future, it won't be," Kyl said. ''Why create permanent status for what may only be a temporary job?"

The leader of the hard-line approach to immigration in Congress, Representative Tom Tancredo, said the prospects of the committee's bill becoming law are ''slim, to say the least."

''No plan with amnesty and a massive increase in foreign workers will pass the House," said Tancredo, Republican of Colorado. ''Americans want enforcement first, and disagreement over foreign workers should not prevent us from securing our borders."

In a highly unusual vote in a chamber that's controlled by Republicans, four Senate Republicans on the committee -- Chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina, Sam Brownback of Kansas, and Mike DeWine of Ohio -- joined with Democrats to approve the bill.

The committee also voted to reject a provision that would make overstaying a visa a felony. Under current law, it is a civil offense to stay in the country past the expiration of a temporary visa.

In addition, the committee turned aside criminal penalties for those who provide assistance such as food, shelter, and counseling to undocumented immigrants.

That vote signaled a break with the get-tough approach favored by the House, which last year approved a border enforcement bill that would make it a crime to aid those who are in the country illegally.

''A lot of them are not going to get through those gates," Graham said. ''The hope is to bring people out of the shadows."