Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - Employers in California and across the country would have to check the immigration status of every new hire under a proposal by a Southern California lawmaker.

That's just one of many ideas that will kick-start a new round of debate in Congress next year over how to curb illegal immigration.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is expanding to the rest of the nation a voluntary program that has allowed California and five other states to check the immigration status of potential hires against a government database.

But Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, said this week that he wants Congress to make employers' use of the database mandatory.

''This is going to force a workable guest labor bill,'' he said, where immigrants can come in and work legally for a time but then must return home.

Congress is set to take up a number of immigration bills, including Calvert's, early next year as growing numbers of undocumented workers place strains on border security, hospital finances and schools.

The issue of illegal immigration flared up this month when a group of Republicans tacked on a provision to a bill to overhaul the nation's intelligence agencies that would have made it difficult for states to issue driver's licenses to undocumented workers. It was removed after GOP leaders promised the measure would be attached to ''must-pass'' legislation next year.

But the real battles will center on creating guest worker programs, which would allow millions of undocumented workers to legally work in construction, farming and hotel jobs. The Agriculture Department offers a small guest worker program but its H-2A visa workers only represent about 2 percent of the nation's 1.5 million farm work force, according to Labor Department figures.

Separate proposals to legalize guest workers have been offered over the past year by President Bush; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, said House Republicans will quickly push legislation that makes it difficult for states to provide drivers' licenses to undocumented workers.

She supports the concept of requiring employers to check the immigration status of potential hires. She also favors giving undocumented immigrants living in the United States the right to sign up for a guest worker program.

''I would support it as long as they registered, we knew who they were and when they were going back,'' Bono said. ''It would not be giving them citizenship or green cards.''

Curbing illegal immigration is important to protect national security, Bono said.

She disagrees with arguments that it would harm the region's economy.

''There's no rationale to say the illegal immigration population should be counted on to fill our work force,'' Bono said.

But Rudy Valenzuela, founder of the Coachella Valley Mexican American Chamber of Commerce, said undocumented workers make up a large part of the labor force.''Everybody who hires them or uses them is benefiting.''

The region has a housing shortage in part because of the limited supply of construction workers, said Valenzuela, who owns a real estate brokerage in Indio.

California boasts the world's sixth-largest economy, which has been partially created by the state's large use of immigrant labor, he said. Placing more burdens on employers won't be good for business and could lead to more discrimination against all Hispanic workers, he said.