Lifting the welcome mat?

Immigration | Once supporters of a guest-worker program, Capitol Hill Democrats now have to face restrictionists in their own party | John Dawson

Match a president who introduced the idea of a revolutionary guest-worker program with a new Congress led by lawmakers who had previously supported the idea, and the thought of President George W. Bush signing into law meaningful immigration reform is not only viable but likely.

Republican pundits said a legacy-minded President Bush could at least find an ironic bit of solace in the Democratic wave that swept Republicans from control of both the House and the Senate on Nov. 7. Comprehensive immigration reform may have been out of reach with enforcement-only Republicans blocking a guest-worker approach. But in January Bush's allies on immigration will control Congress.

Not so fast, say Democratic strategists. To act on Bush's immigration agenda, the new party of power in Congress must first overcome a divide of their own. In a debate filled with so many moving parts on both sides of the aisle, both Republicans and Democrats are trying to forge an immigration compromise while attracting the growing Latino vote—and without turning off anti-immigration constituencies in both parties.