US:Three months after the US Congress failed to pass a broad immigration overhaul, legislators are quietly returning to the issue, discussing narrower measures that address illegal immigrants and low-skilled workers. 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.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, hopes to bring up a visa programme for farm workers that eventually would allow them to gain citizenship, while Republican senators are discussing a short-term guest-worker programme for low-skilled workers.
Republicans also are considering a Bill that would overhaul visas for high-skilled foreigners.
In the House of Representatives, Republicans have been steadily introducing initiatives aimed at ensuring that illegal immigrants cannot gain access to federal benefits.
"We may be heading for another immigration battle," Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, said of the measures headed for the Senate floor. "Hopefully, it can be avoided."
After the Senate failed in June to pass the immigration bill, rebuffing President Bush's support of 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 unveiled a roster of enforcement initiatives in August, provoking a legal challenge from labour and business groups and outrage from immigrant advocates. The department of homeland security has continued stepped-up raids on worksites that use illegals, and in August deported a high-profile illegal immigrant activist who spent months in a Chicago church, declaring it a sanctuary.
Immigrant groups have staged vigils, protests and letter-writing campaigns. 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 for the legalisation for illegal immigrants.
Republican senators quickly brought up an enforcement Bill, a hit with their conservative base. The Democratic measures appeal to Hispanic voters. Staff members from both parties say immigration-related amendments could turn up on any major piece of legislation expected to pass.
Some of the measures in the works do not have much bipartisan support, limiting their chances of success. And some lawmakers express doubts that it is possible to restructure the immigration system through separate Bills instead of sweeping legislation.
"I'm personally very sceptical of a piecemeal approach," said Senator Mel Martinez, a Republican and a member of the bipartisan coalition that tried to pass the overhaul earlier this year. "The hardest thing to do . . . is take care of" the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.
"The minute we start doing the easy things, like taking care of agribusiness interests because they need the workers . . . then we're leaving the hard things" not addressed .
The central conflict that tripped up the comprehensive Bill remains: Should illegal immigrants be given the chance to earn legal status? That question will be an issue in at least two measures headed for the Senate.
The first to come up is expected to be the "Dream Act", a Bill that would give conditional legal status to those brought to the US at a young age.