With a call Monday for a "practical answer" to dealing with illegal immigrants already in the US, President Bush did what Congress's Democratic leadership had urged him to do: go first.

By stepping out front on immigration reform, the president signaled his readiness to take on an issue many here see as toxic, roiling lawmakers of the same party, neighbors on the same street, and the business community.

Whether Mr. Bush can deliver enough votes to push through the broad reform law he wants is what Democrats are asking, knowing he has been battered by the Iraq war and has lost influence even within his own party. Democrats say he needs at least 25 Republicans in the Senate and 70 in the House for it to have a shot at passing – and for them to bring a bill to the floor.

Bush's proposal – the product of weeks of negotiation with GOP senators – would require immigrants in the United States illegally to return to their home countries and pay what Bush called a "meaningful penalty" to qualify to work legally in the US or apply for citizenship. It also would create a temporary guestworker program.

Bush laid out his argument in support of that plan Monday, during a stop at a newly fortified border crossing in Yuma, Ariz. His aim: to win over those lawmakers who see eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants as a quasi-amnesty, a reward for breaking the law.

"It is impractical to take the position that, 'Oh, we'll just find the 11 million or 12 million people and send them home.' That's just an impractical position. It's not going to work," Bush said.

Sticking point: those already in US

How to resolve the status of undocumented immigrants already living in America is but one of several sticking points for lawmakers on Capitol Hill – and much of the American public. The guestworker program, too, is expected to be controversial.

Opposition to anything like amnesty for those who entered or stayed in the United States illegally crosses party lines. Nearly half of the House Republican caucus, 96 of 201 lawmakers, are members of the Immigration Reform Caucus, which opposes new guestworker plans or a path to citizenship for those here illegally. Last year, when a Republican-led Congress approved an immigration reform bill that focused on border security and enforcement, only 17 Republicans opposed it.

"For too long, Americans have been force-fed candidates who ignore or mock their valid concerns about the security of our borders, the enforcement of our immigration laws, and the survival of our national heritage," says Rep. Tom Tancredo (R) of Colorado, who founded the Immigration Reform Caucus and recently launched a presidential bid on a platform of opposition to illegal immigration.

For many Republicans, as well as moderate freshmen Democrats who replaced GOP lawmakers in the 2006 election, a path to citizenship – even with fines and a requirement to return to one's native country before attaining legal status, looks too much like the amnesty policy of the 1980s.

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