Highlights of Immigration Proposals

Here are highlights of different immigration packages that could come before the Senate next week. One is the product of secret negotiations among senior Democratic and Republican senators and members of President Bush's Cabinet.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he may use one of two alternatives - a bill written last year by the Senate Judiciary Committee, or a version the Senate passed later - as the starting point for the debate.

Package negotiated by Senate Democrats, Republicans and Bush administration officials:

-Delays any guest worker program or path to citizenship for illegal immigrants until certain "triggers" are met. They include hiring thousands of new border guards, erecting hundreds of miles of fencing and vehicle barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border and having a biometric identification system for immigrant workers in place.

-Allows illegal immigrants who paid large fines and returned to their countries of origin to earn permanent residency and eventually apply for citizenship. Narrows visa preferences for family members of legalized immigrants.

-Imposes up to a 13-year wait on illegal immigrants seeking legal status to obtain green cards for permanent residency. Visa backlogs for those already waiting in line would be cleared in eight years, and then the government would begin processing the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants over a five-year period.

-Creates a temporary guest worker program and bars immigrant workers from bringing their families to the U.S. unless their incomes exceed 150 percent of the poverty level and they have health insurance.

---

The 2006 bill written by the Senate Judiciary Committee:

-Allows illegal immigrants who were in the United States before 2004 to work legally and have a chance at permanent residency if they pay fines and back taxes, learn English and pass a criminal background check. Removes criminal penalties for immigrants found to be in the country illegally.

-Creates a guest worker program for would-be immigrants who could then apply for legal permanent residence - or green cards - without leaving the United States. Creates a temporary program for immigrant farm workers.

-Authorizes beefed-up border security, including up to 14,000 new Border Patrol agents by 2011, a "virtual wall" of unmanned vehicles, cameras and sensors to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border, and facilities to hold another 10,000 illegal immigrants who are apprehended.

---

The 2006 Senate-passed immigration bill:

-Allows illegal immigrants who have been in the country five years or more to remain, continue working and eventually become legal permanent residents and citizens after paying fines and back taxes and learning English.

-Requires illegal immigrants in the U.S. between two and five years to go to a point of entry at the border and file an application to return. Those in the country less than two years would have to leave.

-Provides 200,000 new temporary "guest worker" visas a year, and creates a special guest worker program for an estimated 1.5 million immigrant farm workers, who could also earn legal permanent residency.

-Authorizes new border security measures, including 370 miles of new triple-layered fencing plus 500 miles of vehicle barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border; 14,000 additional Border Patrol agents by 2011; and additional detention facilities for apprehended illegal immigrants. Requires employers and subcontractors to use an electronic system within 18 months to verify that new hires are legal.