WASHINGTON — Three months after Congress failed to pass a broad immigration overhaul, lawmakers are quietly returning to the hot-button issue, discussing narrower measures that address illegal immigrants and low-skilled laborers.
Already, critics are promising fireworks.
As early as this week, Democratic senators are set to introduce an amendment that would give conditional legal status to young illegal immigrants.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) hopes to bring up a visa program that eventually would allow farmhands to gain citizenship, whereas Republican senators are discussing a short-term guest worker program for low-skilled laborers.
Republicans also are considering a bill that would overhaul visas for high-skilled foreigners.
In the House, Republicans have been steadily introducing initiatives aimed at ensuring that illegal immigrants could not gain access to federal benefits.
"We may be heading for another immigration battle," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said of the measures headed for the Senate floor.
"Hopefully it can be avoided."
After the Senate failed in June to pass the broad immigration bill, rebuffing President Bush, who supported it, many on Capitol Hill predicted the issue would lie fallow until after the 2008 presidential election. But that has not been the case.
The Bush administration in August unveiled a roster of aggressive enforcement initiatives, provoking a legal challenge from labor and business groups and outrage from immigrant advocates. The Department of Homeland Security has continued its stepped-up raids on work sites that use illegal laborers, and in August it deported a high-profile illegal immigrant activist who had spent months in a Chicago church, declaring it a sanctuary.
Immigrant groups nationwide have staged vigils, protests and letter-writing campaigns to demand changes in policy. Groups that want to limit immigration also have kept a sharp eye on Congress, on the lookout for any attempts to pass what they view as "amnesty" -- proposals that would open the way to legalization for illegal immigrants.
Since the comprehensive bill's failure, some of the focus on immigration has served political goals.
Republican senators quickly brought up an enforcement bill, a hit with their conservative base. The Democratic-sponsored measures generally appeal to Latino voters. Staff members from both parties say immigration-related amendments could turn up on any major piece of legislation expected to pass.
