Immigrant plan quietly in the works

For a month, White House staffers and Cabinet members have met three to four times a week with influential Republican senators and aides to hash out a consensus plan designed to draw a significant number of GOP votes.

With that effort largely completed, Republicans were hoping to present their proposal Wednesday to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who would lead the Democrats in any attempt to move a bill through the Senate.

The intense effort -- conceived by the president's chief political strategist, Karl Rove -- is intended to ensure that Bush will achieve at least one crucial policy victory in the last two years of his presidency.

Success on immigration reform could also accomplish another Rove goal, shoring up the GOP's weakened support among Latinos, who are even more important to the party as independent voters become increasingly disenchanted.

Time is short, though. Immigration is one of the few areas where the Democratic Congress sees eye to eye with the lame-duck president, but strains between the two are likely to worsen as the 2008 election nears.

Though public work on an immigration overhaul appeared to have slowed, momentum simply moved behind closed doors.

"We are working very hard on this," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in an interview, calling it a "top priority."

Republicans hope to use their consensus plan as leverage to persuade Democrats to adopt some of their positions. Advocates warn, though, that the GOP's gambit could backfire if it generates distrust among Democrats. That could effectively end any chance of an overhaul.

"The president really wants this. He also needs this; it may be the only positive policy thing he can accomplish before he leaves office," said Laura Foote Reiff, co-chairwoman of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, a business alliance.

But she worries that the GOP effort could delay a bill. "I am concerned that the White House strategy may not get us closer to consensus. I hope I'm wrong. We are very concerned that the window is closing."