The U.S. Senate has approved (by a 62 to 36 vote) sweeping immigration reform legislation that strengthens border security and establishes a guest worker program for the millions of illegal immigrants in the United States. The measure also contains provisions to deal with the 11 to 12 million undocumented workers already in the country by setting up a guest worker program and offering many of them a path to U.S. citizenship.
Trend reports referring to ITAR-TASS, the fate of the measure remains unclear, as it must be reconciled with much tougher House-passed legislation, which does not include the guest worker program, but does contain a provision that would designate illegal immigrants felons.
Now, both drafts shall be worked up by the special congress commission. President Bush, who also supports the guest worker proposal, has called on Congress to include such a provision in immigration reform legislation.