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Frist wants immigration vote this week

WASHINGTON — Maneuvering toward a pre-election showdown on immigration, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Sunday said he would seek passage of legislation to secure the borders and predicted Democrats would resist.

"Right now I got a feeling the Democrats may obstruct it," said Frist, R-Tenn.

The bill is all that is left of a comprehensive immigration proposal generally backed by President Bush that included provisions for a guest worker program and ways for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to work toward legal status and eventual citizenship.

Frist led a bipartisan effort to pass that measure this year, but House Republicans opposed it as too lenient on immigrants in the country illegally.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, accused Frist of playing politics by seeking to blame Democrats. Frist's move is an attempt to cover up his failure to push through more comprehensive changes, Manley said.

"The Senate spent almost a month debating and then passing tough and smart immigration reform that included border security, but Republican obstructionism has prevented us from completing that bill," Manley said in a statement.

In December, the House passed legislation that concentrated on border security and enforcement of laws banning employment of undocumented workers; the Senate in May then passed its broader bill. Since then, there's been no progress in efforts to reconcile the two bills.

With no prospects this year for passing broader immigration changes, House GOP leaders said taking action to seal the border was a matter of urgency. Some GOP lawmakers including Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., however, have said they're not sure immigration could be addressed "on a piecemeal basis."

Frist said he is willing to push ahead with a narrower bill favored by House Republicans that would require the building of a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border at a cost of billions of dollars. Even so, action may not be possible before the November elections, he said, blaming Democrats.

"If you're going to address immigration reform, you have to first and foremost secure our borders," he said on ABC's "This Week." "What I've done _ and hopefully what we'll be voting on the floor of the Senate this week _ is (to) take the common parts of the House bill and the common parts of the Senate bill."