From NY Post:

BORDER BLUNDER

By DEBORAH ORIN

May 24, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday joined other Democrats in a push to let all 12 million illegal aliens become citizens - but it was decisively defeated.

Only Democrats voted for the full-legalization measure, which lost 61-37 as the Senate struggled to hold a bipartisan coalition in favor of legalization for most - but not all - illegal aliens.

Schumer said he backed the full-legalization measure because it sets "a very tough path to citizenship" and requires "learning English, working for 10 years and only missing 45 days [of work], paying a fine and staying on the straight and narrow."

Clinton's office did not respond to requests for comment.

The Senate is expected to pass its immigration bill this week - creating a direct path to citizenship for illegal aliens here for at least five years, estimated at about 8 to 10 million.

The House in December passed an enforcement-only bill that beefs up the border, but provides no citizenship for illegal aliens and no temporary guest-worker program. House leaders insist they're sticking to that position.

Once the Senate acts, leaders of both parties will try to work out a compromise that can pass both bodies, but it's unclear if that will be possible because the bills are so different. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) yesterday proposed a possible compromise that would allow illegal aliens to apply for temporary jobs without the possibility of citizenship - but only if they return to their home countries to apply.

House Homeland Security Committee chairman Pete King (R-L.I.), who opposes any legalization, yesterday said Pence's approach "is certainly worth considering."

Meanwhile, a new study reported that nearly half the illegal aliens now in the United States originally came in on legal visas and overstayed - rather than sneaking across the border.

The Pew Hispanic Center - which estimates there are up to 12 million illegal aliens in the United States - says 4.5 million to 6 million originally arrived legally but overstayed their visas. The latest study could raise new questions about whether future workers with "temporary" visas would leave on time - or add to the "overstays."

"The U.S. government currently has no means of determining whether all the foreign nationals admitted for temporary stays actually leave the country," the report says.

It also notes that the biometric cards used to track regular border crossers by identifying marks like fingerprints can still be used fraudulently by others because they aren't always checked.

The study concludes that the "vast human traffic" that enters the United States every year makes it very difficult to check, with 179 million individual entries each year.

About 148 million are repeat visitors from Mexico and Canada.