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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: GOP forms strategy to OK guest workers (Senate will pass the plan and then merge it with a House bill) In a bid to bypass critics, the Senate will pass the plan and then merge it with a House bill, observers say. Washington - Republican leaders will try to pass President Bush's controversial guest-worker proposal without putting it to a direct vote in the House. Observers say the new GOP strategy that begins today is for the House to deal only with the more politically palatable issue of increasing border security and clamping down on employers. Republican leaders then will let the Senate pass some form of a guest-worker plan. After that vote, senators and House members will merge the House's border security bill with the Senate's legislation in closed-door meetings. The House will then vote on the final package, which will include some guest-worker provision, according to a GOP aide familiar with the plan, a Colorado lawmaker and other observers. The strategy is designed to avoid a divisive debate and contentious vote in the House. "There is a widespread expectation that that is how it's going to play out," said Tamar Jacoby, immigration expert with The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. "I think it would be hard to pass in the House without the Senate going first." The legislation that is likely to be the core of the House's immigration bill is expected to be introduced today. Sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., it tightens border security and forces employers to verify workers' citizenship. It does not address guest-worker issues. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the biggest opponent of the president's guest-worker proposal, said the strategy limits his ability to challenge the measure. "They're doing it this way because they know in the House they'll run into a buzz saw and maybe my name's on it," said Tancredo, who heads the 92-member Immigration Reform Caucus in the House. Sensenbrenner's bill is expected to be voted on within the next two weeks. That allows House members to visit their districts for the Christmas break and say that they passed immigration reform, Tancredo and Jacoby said. But the House members will be aware of the plan to build in a guest-worker program through the conference committee, said Grover Norquist, a Republican strategist who often serves as an informal liaison between Congress and the White House. "The president's made it clear he wants both (border security and a guest-worker program)," Norquist said.
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