Plan to Include System Enabling Undocumented Workers to Gain Legal Status

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer

CRAWFORD, Tex., Jan. 3 -- President Bush will propose protections for the Social Security taxes paid by the workers who would come into the country under massive changes to immigration laws he plans to announce on Wednesday, Republican officials said Saturday.

Bush's plan would make it possible for such workers from Mexico and perhaps other countries to collect retirement benefits without being penalized by their home countries for the years they spent working in the United States, the officials said.

Officials began releasing details of Bush's plan shortly before Christmas and provided new details over the weekend. The officials said Bush's plan will contain a new system to help workers who want to enter from Mexico or other countries if they have jobs waiting for them. It also includes a mechanism for some undocumented residents to continue working in the United States and get on a path to legal status.

Undocumented workers now pay billions of dollars annually into Social Security but do not collect benefits because they give their employers fraudulent Social Security numbers.

Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant advocacy group, said he fears the Social Security plan could be used as an incentive for workers to go home instead of settling in the United States, which could create what he called "a permanent class of temporary workers with no political power."

"The knock that will be put on Republicans is that they want immigrants as workers but not as voters," Sharry said.

Bush is scheduled to announce the package five days before he meets in Mexico with President Vicente Fox, who has been prodding the White House since Bush was inaugurated to change an immigration system that has resulted in at least 8 million undocumented immigrants -- about half of whom are Mexican -- living in the United States.

In Mexico, analysts and officials reacted with cautious optimism to early descriptions of the plan, saying that they viewed the proposal as a sign of markedly improving relations between Bush and Fox.

Bush worked to develop warm relations with Mexico when he was Texas governor, and his first international trip as president was to Mexico. But the administration began trying to harden the borders after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Bush distanced himself from Fox after Mexico failed to use its seat on the United Nations Security Council to support the U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

Fox has said that he and Bush will restart immigration talks privately at the Summit of the Americas, a meeting of the hemisphere's leaders to be held in Monterrey, in the Mexican border state of Baja California. Bush will make his fourth presidential trip to Mexico for the summit on Jan. 12 and 13.

Fox said last month that the two countries are working on agreements to allow Mexicans "to go and come each year as many times as they want, without problems, and so that they can work with documents in the United States."

Bush's plans, many of which are similar to ideas endorsed by the Democratic presidential candidates in their platforms and debates, would be the most broad changes to immigration law since a bill signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986.

The immigration plan is Bush's first policy announcement of his reelection year, and aides said it was calibrated by Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove. An official on Bush's political team said the proposal will help bolster support for the president with Hispanic voters, who are regarded by both parties as a constituency that is largely up for grabs, and in the states of Florida and New Mexico, both of which Bush barely won in 2000. Bush travels to Florida on Thursday.

The proposals will be a test for Bush because some House Republicans are skeptical and even hostile to the idea of liberalizing immigration controls. The Bush official said that in trying to persuade conservative lawmakers to back the package, the administration will contend that it reflects Republican values by rewarding work. The administration will also argue that the plan would enhance national security by making it more likely that immigrants with tips about terrorism would cooperate with authorities, because they would not fear deportation.

Officials said Bush's proposals draw heavily on a bill introduced by Sen. John McCain, his rival in the 2000 primaries, and Reps. Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake, all Arizona Republicans. That bill would create a Web-based Labor Department database of jobs that would be open first to U.S. workers and then to foreigners, who could be admitted with a "temporary worker" visa available for a maximum of six years.

The Arizonans' bill proposes a new type of visa for workers who are now in the United States illegally. They could come forward and receive this visa for three years. After that, the formerly undocumented worker could apply for a temporary visa like those held by workers under the electronic job registry.

Immigration reform is a top priority of Bush's backers in the business community. Daniel T. Griswold, an immigration expert at the free-enterprise-oriented Cato Institute, called Bush's proposal "compassionate conservatism at its best -- a market-driven approach allowing supply and demand to get together in the labor market."

© 2004