The Senate and the House have moved quickly to name members of the House-Senate conference committee which will try to work out a compromise, particularly on the provision allowing some of the illegal aliens to remain in the US and later apply for citizenship.

For several weeks now, President Bush has been traveling around the US pushing anew for his plan to overhaul the immigration rules In his latest stop in Omaha, Nebraska, Bush touted the importance of assimilation of immigrants through the adoption of American culture, including learning English.

To gain passage during this midterm election year, Bush must win over many in his own party who are opposed to provisions he demands besides stepped-up border enforcement. Those provisions include providing a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants and allowing additional work permits for foreigners.

The president has taken several tacks in recent weeks to bring around recalcitrant lawmakers, including repeated emphasis on his seriousness about tightening the border with more manpower and equipment and imposing stiffer penalties on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

Both the House and Senate bills provide for strengthening the border but disagrees on what to do with the some 12 million illegal aliens already in the US. The House bill brands them as criminals and therefore subject to deportation while the Senate version, which the President supports, allows the bulk of illegal aliens to remain in the US.

The House said the Senate bill is amnesty for violators of US immigration laws. The Senate and Bush say it is not.

The inclusion in the Senate of the path to citizenship set the stage for a battle with the House which passed a stricter bill in December. Majority of senators who voted for their own version of the bill last month said President Bush’s intervention is the key to crafting a compromise. “I believe we can do it,” Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters. “I believe the president will put a very heavy shoulder to the wheel.” President Bush commended the Senate on its work in “passing bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform.” “I look forward to working together with both the House of Representatives and the Senate to produce a bill for me to sign into law,” he said in a statement. The prospects for that, however, remain uncertain. Most members of the GOP majority in the Senate voted against the measure, with 23 backing it and 32 opposing. Among Democrats voting, 38 supported the bill and four did not.

Blocking a quick solution is the coming mid-term election in November. While only a fraction of the members of the Senate are up for reelection, all the House members will have to fight to keep their seats. And the immigration issue is a hot subject among their constituents. Surveys have shown that majority of Americans favor the House version.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican who voted for the bill, has called for swift talks with the House to mold a compromise measure. The House bill passed in December focuses on border enforcement, and omits a guest-worker program and a legalization process for illegal immigrants.

“There is an important issue, political issue, about the ability of Republicans to govern,” the Judiciary Committee chairman said. “There is an election in November, and our leadership positions as Republicans is on the line. And I think that will weigh heavily in the conference.”

Frist said “the most contentious part” of the bill is how to handle the status of the millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States. Under the Senate bill, he said, those who have been in the country two to five years would enter a temporary-worker program, while those inside longer would be eligible for legal status or citizenship after an 11-year probationary period. They would first have to meet other criteria, including learning English, and paying a penalty and back taxes. Under the Senate legislation, illegal immigrants in the United States less than two years would be returned to their home countries.

Bush supports increased border enforcement and a guest-worker program with a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Opponents of the Senate bill said it will amount to “amnesty” for illegal immigrants. “The vast majority of the 11 million or so people here will be given every benefit this nation can bestow as a product of their illegality. I don’t think that’s a good principle,” Sen. Jeff Sessions said. “We have not developed a plan, even if implemented, that will secure the border,” the Alabama Republican said at a news conference held before the vote with five GOP colleagues also opposed to the measure. Others standing with him asked House negotiators to help keep some of the Senate provisions from becoming law. “I’m hopeful that the House will save us from this bill,” said Sen. John Ensign, a Nevada Republican.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, praised the bipartisan work on the bill, but said “it is still a 50-50 proposition to get a bill on the president’s desk.” Both sides, he said, will have to make substantial changes, and added that the final legislation cannot be solely an enforcement bill. Sen. John McCain, a key proponent of the measure, said after the vote that the Senate was sending two messages, the first “to our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol.”

“We will sit down and negotiate in good faith to try to resolve an issue that all of us are in total agreement must be resolved,” the Arizona Republican said. “We will listen to you, and we hope you will listen to us with respect, and we know that we can work this out.” “The second message is to those who would cross our border illegally: We are going to close our border,” he said.

House Majority Leader John Boehner noted the gulf between the two versions of the bill. “We have two very separate and distinct directions,” the Ohio Republican said at a news conference Thursday. “I don’t underestimate the difficulty in the House and Senate trying to come together in an agreement.” “But I’m hopeful that we will come to a resolution and pass a bill.”

Boehner stressed the importance of the border issue to the House. “You can’t control the problem without first strengthening the borders and beginning to enforce the laws,” he said.

Frist had once supported the House version of the bill, which would make illegal immigration a felony. But the likely 2008 Republican presidential candidate said he has changed his position because “a mature understanding” of the handling of illegal immigrants has emerged in the Senate after two weeks of debate. Frist acknowledged room for improvement in the legislation, and said it might come during the conference committee meetings. “People ask me all the time, ‘How’re you going to put these two together?’ I think we will be able to.” As the discussion continued in the U.S. capital, Mexican President Vicente Fox, on whose border the Senate bill also mandates 370 miles of new fencing, was on a swing through Utah, Washington and California. Fox called the Senate bill “a historic step” and vowed in a speech to the California state legislature that his country will do its part in safeguarding Mexico’s border with the United States.