By Nick Taborek
Medill News Service

WASHINGTON -- The first attempt to amend the immigration being debate in the Senate is aimed at eliminating a guest worker program that Republicans say is crucial to the compromise proposal.

Introduced by Sens. Byron Dorgan , D-N.D., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the amendment could go before the Senate later Tuesday.

The guest worker program targeted by the senators would give two year renewable visas to about 400,000 workers each year. And workers would have to return to their home countries for a year between stints in the U.S.

But the senators said that kind of guest worker program would lead to as many as 3.6 million foreign workers in the country after 10 years, and would depress wages for middle class Americans.

Dorgan called it a “cave-in to the big economic interests that want to import more cheap labor into our workforce.”

Boxer said the plan would be a recipe for an influx of illegal immigrants because of the unrealistic requirement that workers return home between short stays in the U.S.

If the amendment fails, senators said they would support another plan to trim the number of guest worker visas to 200,000. The second amendment is sponsored by Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.

Boxer said she’s not worried that getting rid of the guest worker program would weaken bipartisan support for the immigration reform bill. She called that an “idle threat.”