WASHINGTON — After months of painstaking negotiations, a bipartisan group of senators forged an agreement Thursday on a bill that would allow most illegal immigrants now in the country to become citizens; reshape how legal immigrants are admitted; and create security measures that eventually would require all U.S. workers to prove their legal status.
The plan to legalize most of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants and to create a temporary-worker program would not start until steps were completed to strengthen border security and workplace enforcement.
The bill calls for hiring about 6,000 additional Border Patrol officers, building hundreds of miles of fencing and vehicle barriers, and expanding surveillance with radar towers and aerial drones. Employers would have to electronically verify the legal status of new hires and would face stiff penalties for breaking the law.
The senators and Cabinet secretaries who negotiated the measure stressed that it needed to pass soon, before election politics made it impossible to tackle the controversial issue.
"This is the last, best chance we'll have as a Congress," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at negotiators' Capitol news conference. "If this somehow collapsed, it would be years before you could re-create this."
The negotiators acknowledged that their compromise bill would provoke intense criticism from both ends of the political spectrum that could imperil it in the Senate and House.
"This plan isn't perfect, but it's a strong bill and it is a worthy solution," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the lead Democratic negotiator.
The intricately crafted bill brings President Bush a step closer to a domestic goal that he has championed since he took office. On Thursday, he hailed the deal as a "historic moment" and said he was "anxious to sign a comprehensive immigration bill as soon as I possibly can."
Dissenting voices from the Senate quickly signaled how difficult the president's goal might be. "We should not give a blanket amnesty to illegal immigrants who want to flaunt the laws of this land," Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) said.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the negotiators, said he had "serious concerns" because some key details had yet to be drafted.
The Senate plans to take up the bill Monday, and the leadership aims to have a final vote before Memorial Day -- an ambitious goal in light of the contention last year over a Senate immigration bill. That bill passed the Senate but was never debated in the House.
