By Fawn Johnson, CongressDaily
© National Journal Group Inc.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Senators negotiating a broad immigration bill caught a break Tuesday evening when Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed to postpone a cloture vote scheduled for today until Monday.

	The bill being discussed includes a new point system for green card applicants, a path to citizenship for current undocumented workers and a guestworker program.

"The bipartisan negotiations are showing progress and this gives them a chance to continue," said a Democratic aide.

The staffs of all the major players in the immigration debate have been assigned different portions of the measure to draft, but the negotiators themselves have not seen all of it. "We've got language, but in parts," said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.

"We have a lot of language which has already been prepared, and there are some contentious issues where there's going to have to be some more language," said Judiciary Committee ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa. "I'm optimistic we'll be able to proceed with a bill ... I think we're heading in the right direction."

The bill being discussed includes a new point system for green card applicants, a path to citizenship for current undocumented workers and a guestworker program that would require the vast majority of future foreign workers to leave the country when their visas expire.

On the guestworker program, Martinez said negotiators are still determining how many of the new guestworkers -- allotted at 400,000 annually -- would be permitted to apply for green cards, estimating that the final number could be "10 to 20 percent." Lawmakers also have not yet determined whether the new guestworker visa would be renewable.

Negotiators have agreed to a separate legalization program for agriculture workers similar to the "AgJobs" bill and to including the "DREAM" Act for illegal students in the final bill. Immigrants currently holding "temporary protected status" visas for refugees also would be converted to a "Z visa" that would be created for the illegal population.

Martinez acknowledged that Democrats might have difficulty agreeing to send guestworkers home when their visas expire. "I think there's grudging acquiescence that that's probably the way it's going to go," he said. "When you come as a guestworker, you come as a guestworker. It's not a vehicle for immigration. You come here to work."

Still outstanding in negotiations is the number of overall green cards that would be allowed annually, a decision that represents the linchpin of any new immigration policy. Immigrant advocates argue that if the number is too small, green card processing could be backed up for decades. Conservatives argue that if the number is too large, the population of low-skilled workers will grow exponentially.

Democrats, meanwhile, are focused on ensuring that the point system for determining the priority of green card applicants gives considerable credit to applicants who have family in the United States.

"I would consider the point system if, in fact, people get extra points for family reunification," Reid said Tuesday.