WASHINGTON — A move to lower the barriers to immigrants who want to live and work in the United States is picking up steam again, two years after it was stalled by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Both Republicans and Democrats have proposed creating guest-worker programs and granting legal status to undocumented workers already in the United States. Business and labor are seeking a deal that would help fill low-end jobs.
"I think we are out of the shadows of Sept. 11," said B. Lindsay Lowell, director of an immigration research center at Washington's Georgetown University. But he added: "I see it as a difficult thing to push through. You have to have all the players in the right place at the right time to make it happen."
President Bush is the player who is not yet in place -- although he and Mexican President Vicente Fox were on the verge of a breakthrough two years ago on a package that would have combined an expanded guest-worker program with amnesty for undocumented workers.
"The major person missing is Bush," said Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights group. "That is interesting, considering he arguably started this whole debate."
Continuing weakness in the U.S. economy has not deterred immigration-reform backers, who range from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
"Whether we are in the middle of a jobless recovery or not, Americans are not taking these jobs," said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), coauthor of an immigration-reform bill with McCain. "They are not interested in turning down beds at hotels and working in the fields."
A major hurdle to the reform effort looms in the GOP-controlled House, where key lawmakers oppose liberalizing immigration policy. They argue that any sort of amnesty would only encourage more illegal immigration. And they say the country needs to restrain immigration until post-Sept. 11 security measures are fully worked out.
"On immigration, the House has more political minefields than the Senate does," said Randel K. Johnson, a senior lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Reform advocates say that could change if Bush weighs in on their side. "We need to have presidential leadership to move this debate forward," said Kolbe.
While the economic forces behind illegal immigration -- factors such as willing workers in Mexico and unfilled low-wage jobs in the United States -- have not changed, the rhetoric of debate has.
