Moreover, the United States already has a guest-worker program that allowed in about 17,000 temporary workers last year.

The House narrowly approved a guest-worker program in 1984, but the bill died in the Senate.

"There's going to be an interesting debate about amnesty" and the guest-worker programs, he said.

Immigration: Tran is opposed to criminalization of illegal immigrants and is opposed to guest-worker programs.

"Initially I was having so big a hope," Mr. Ming said, referring to proposals for guest-worker programs that could legalize millions of immigrants.

The bill would have expanded guest-worker programmes and stepped up immigration enforcement at the border and workplace.

The guest-worker program was ended in 1973, the year of the first oil crisis, but large-scale immigration from Turkey has scarcely abated since.

Sanders has said, "we have a responsibility to ensure that companies do not use guest-worker programs to replace American workers with cheaper labor from overseas."

But like all guest-worker programs, the H-1B program pits American workers against foreign workers lacking full legal and political rights.

Among the proposals are measures that would give legal status to 3.5 million Mexicans in the United States and expand guest-worker programs for Mexicans.