A risky new push for immigration legislation

Advocates for immigration reform are working to get organized labor on their side. This would risk alienating others, but they are using their clout, as voters for the current administration, to help convince everyone. - - Donna Poisl

By Peter Wallsten

Reporting from Washington -- With their prospects in Congress sinking along with the economy, liberal advocates of giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship are launching a risky strategy to push lawmakers and the White House to take up their cause.

They are devising a proposal in which millions of undocumented workers would be legalized now, while the number of foreign workers allowed to enter the country would be examined by a new independent commission, and probably reduced.

It is a calculation designed to win a new and powerful ally, organized labor, which favors a limit on foreign worker visas. But it risks alienating businesses that rely on temporary workers and could turn off key Republicans such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who in the past has crafted his own compromise plan for legalization.
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