Compromise plan outlines various paths to citizenship

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans reached agreement Wednesday night on a compromise immigration measure that would clear the way for legal status and eventual citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million men, women and children living in the United States illegally.

Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., outlined the proposal after efforts at a bipartisan compromise faltered earlier in the day and the Senate teetered between accomplishment and gridlock on the most sweeping immigration bill in two decades.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged to review the GOP proposal overnight to see whether "it could be something we could all support." The prospects appeared uncertain, however, since the provisions appeared similar to what he and other Democrats had earlier spurned.

The fate of the 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally hinged on the outcome of election-year maneuvering on an issue that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said had generated an unusual amount of emotion.

Three thousand miles away from the Capitol, Cardinal Roger Mahony asked Catholics to pray that the Senate would pass legislation allowing illegal immigrants to gain citizenship. The Los Angeles-based prelate said the debate marked "one of the most critical weeks in the history of our country."

Republican officials said the GOP plan would divide illegal immigrants into three categories:

• Those who had been in the country the longest, more than five years, would not be required to return to their home country before gaining legal status. To attain citizenship, those immigrants would have to pay a $2,000 penalty and back taxes, learn English, undergo a criminal background check and remain working for 11 years.

• Illegal immigrants in the United States less than five years but more than two would be required to go to one of 16 designated ports of entry, such as El Paso, Texas, and apply for a new form of temporary work visa for low-skilled and unskilled workers.

• Illegal immigrants in the United States less than two years would be required to leave the country and join any other foreign residents seeking legal entry.

The officials who described the proposal did so on condition of anonymity, saying they had not been authorized to do so.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House, although President Bush has repeatedly called for a comprehensive bill that included steps to deal with those living illegally in the country.

Frist's move cleared the way for a series of test votes over the next day or two on a pair of rival proposals.

The first showdown was set for today, on an attempt by Reid and other Democrats to advance legislation that cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee more than a week ago.

While a bipartisan majority supported the bill, it quickly ran into trouble from conservative Republicans, some of whom said it would bestow amnesty on lawbreakers.

"This is a vote that for millions of Americans is a question about whose side you're on," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat, adding that unless legislation clears the Senate this week, it may be doomed for the year.

But it appeared destined to gain far fewer than the 60 votes needed to advance, and perhaps less than a majority that would give political bragging rights to Reid in the event the effort to pass legislation eventually collapses.

Other senators, including conservative Republican Johnny Isakson of Georgia and moderate Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska, favor the approach taken by the House in December, when it passed a bill that cracked down on illegal immigration without offering any new avenue for lawful employment or citizenship.

If the Senate fails to act, senators will leave Washington this weekend for a two-week spring recess with nothing to show for a fortnight of heated debate.

While the Senate struggles to reach a compromise, activists are using popular Spanish-language radio and networks of community organizations to mobilize protests scheduled for Monday in Washington and scores of other cities.

The demonstrations are planned to expand on a groundswell that attracted about 30,000 largely Hispanic protesters in Washington last month, about 100,000 in Chicago and as many as 500,000 in Los Angeles.

Jaime Contreras, president of the National Capital Immigrant Coalition, predicted that Monday's demonstration at the Washington Monument would draw 100,000 people and that nationally the turnout, in more than 60 cities, would number "in the millions."

The movement has emerged as a loose coalition of immigrants'-rights groups, unions, and religious and student organizations.

Organizers are eager to draw other immigrant groups, including Asians and Africans, into Monday's protest. But it is the involvement of so many previously apolitical elements of the Latino community that may prove a watershed in the political and cultural evolution of Hispanics, whose influence has lagged behind their growth into the nation's largest minority.

"The sleeping Latino giant is finally awake," Contreras said. "This will be the largest demonstration by immigrants ever held in this country."