With yesterday’s compromise in the Senate on a comprehensive immigration reform, a vote could come today that might finally goad the House into action on a workable bill. It’s not a moment too soon. The Senate bill caps nearly a year of debate in that chamber, and will help solve a problem that has been building for much longer. Assuming senators pass the compromise bill, which they are expected to do, we’ll be that much closer to a real reform measure that will provide the economy with the workers it needs, address the plight of most of the 12 million otherwise law-abiding residents who have been forced to live in the shadows by outdated immigration laws, and, most importantly, preserve America’s role as a haven for the world’s huddled masses yearning to breath free.

Senators preserved the most critical element of the McCain-Kennedy bill they had been debating – the idea that those who are already in the country illegally need some way to regularize their status. Under the McCain-Kennedy proposal itself, all but the most recent arrivals would have had an opportunity to apply for temporary worker visas and, eventually, citizenship. Lawmakers had to weaken that somewhat so as to maintain a chance to get the measure through the upper chamber. Only those who can prove they have been in the country for five years or more will be guaranteed citizenship if they can meet conditions such as paying a fine and back taxes and learning English. Those who have been here for two to five years will need to report to a designated city to apply, may have to leave America to obtain guest worker permits, and will not be guaranteed citizenship although they will be able to apply.

It’s not a perfect solution. Assuming all the “long-term” illegal immigrants have kept adequate records – such as saving five-year-old cable or utility bills or pay stubs – to prove their eligibility, they would still account for about 7 million of the 12 million illegal immigrants estimated to be in the country right now. That’s no small percentage, but only time will tell whether traveling to one of the 16 designated cities and having to leave the country for a period is too high a hurdle for the millions of immigrants in the two-to-five-year interval. Immigration reform will be only a partial success if millions of immigrants are still living in the shadows at the end of the day.

Members of the House refused to act on any guest worker or earned legalization provision when they took up the issue last December, but in passing a compromise bill this weekend, senators would be leading the way for their colleagues on the other side of the Hill. Some representatives understand the importance of this issue; Republicans Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe of Arizona and a Democrat, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, introduced a comprehensive bill that their colleagues ignored in favor of the enforcement-only provision. The three now hope that the Senate’s action will pave the way for the House to reconsider its earlier decision.

Such reconsideration is long overdue, even though the House acted only five months ago. Enforcement alone will not work, and would be so contrary to America’s history of immigration that we shouldn’t even try. The Senate has shown that it is possible for lawmakers from many parts of the political spectrum and many parts of the country to reach a compromise on immigration reform that leaves room for those who have come looking for a better life even though America’s laws didn’t keep up with them. It will fall to the House this spring and summer to rise to that challenge.