Split in organized labor over immigration

SEIU is now the fastest growing union in the country with more than 1.8 million members and says it represents more immigrants than any other union. UNITE HERE also has a large number of immigrants in its membership. Both see a recruiting target in those 12 million now-illegal immigrants.

They also are in favor of keeping temporary foreign worker programs, which are popular with immigrants, as long as the government ensures the workers aren't abused. A House plan that would allow temporary foreign workers to apply for a three-year visa which can be renewed for another three years is their preferred method.

Under a properly run temporary worker program, only about half of the foreigners coming to the United States under those conditions would want to stay permanently, SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina said.

"They would want to do it like my father used to do it. He used to come and work for a period of time and then go home," Medina said. "I think what you will wind up with a lot of people being truly temporary workers, because that's what they want to be."

Each side is using its influence in the Democrat-controlled Congress to push for a resolution in its favor.

Unions spent more than $66 million in the midterm election cycle, most of that money going to Democratic candidates. That makes them a player in the debate in the Senate and the House, although the differing opinions may blunt their impact.

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Medina isn't surprised that all the unions aren't on the same page. "There's differences among labor just as there's differences among business" on the legislation, he said.

The Senate bill died earlier this month but was resurrected after pressure from President Bush, who has made it a top domestic priority. The bill is widely regarded as the last and best chance for Congress to take action on immigration _ possibly for years to come.

"It's time to create legal and fair channels for immigrants to come here to work in the future," Medina said. "And it's time to replace this cycle of border deaths and worker exploitation with a controlled system that works for America."

But there is disagreement even among the unions that broke away from the AFL-CIO to form the new coalition Change to Win.

SEIU is for a temporary foreign worker plan, while the Teamsters and the Laborers' International Union of North America _ also Change to Win members _ are not.

"LIUNA will not support the creation of a new guest worker program without serious reforms," president Terence M. O'Sullivan said, "most fundamentally a realistic path to citizenship that encourages immigrants to put down roots and stay to pursue the American dream."

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