As President Bush prepares to promote his guest-worker program in the State of the Union address tonight, policy analysts, religious leaders, and immigrant advocates are warning that the momentum of a House immigration and border-security bill could derail his plans for comprehensive reform.

The Real ID Act, introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner last week, includes immigration measures that were stripped from the intelligence reform act that passed last year.

Critics of the Real ID Act charge it does not address the root causes of the 8 to 10 million undocumented immigrants in America and could make the country less secure.

They are particularly concerned because it is likely the legislation will be fast-tracked along with funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or a tsunami relief package.

“The Real ID Act consists of provisions that were already dismissed in the context of 9/11 reform last year. The provisions seek large-scale changes to laws in the name of national security; however, none of its provisions do anything even remotely to secure our borders,” said the chairman of the New York chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Matthew Dunn. “Clearly, our immigration system needs fixing, but these provisions do nothing to advance that cause,” he said.

Congress is expected to address comprehensive immigration reform this year, and Mr. Sensenbrenner’s bill will likely be the first significant legislation to reach the House floor, where there is an active caucus committed to restricting immigration.

“I received assurances from House leaders that the Real ID Act is a top priority this year and will be attached to the first piece of must-pass legislation,” Mr. Sensenbrenner said last week in a statement. “Although the intelligence bill did not include the immigration and homeland-security provisions I sought, it did help me bring the issue of illegal immigrants to the forefront of the national debate…. The goal of the Real ID Act is straightforward: It seeks to prevent another 9/11-type attack by disrupting terrorist travel.”

Mr. Sensenbrenner said last week he could not say whether he would support the president’s guest-worker plan because no specific legislation has been introduced. Mr. Bush has said he wants to provide temporary three-year work visas for undocumented immigrants already in America. Guest worker visas would also be available for foreign workers, as long as the employer can prove no American workers were available for the jobs. While Mr. Bush stresses the plan is not an amnesty, critics within his own party have become increasingly vocal.

Meanwhile, the two most disputed provisions of the Real ID Act would increase asylum requirements and place federal restrictions on immigrants’ eligibility for driver’s licenses. A wide spectrum of immigrant advocates responded with alarm, calling the provisions anti-immigrant and ineffective toward increasing security.

“It would inflict serious hardship on victims of persecution, torture, and trauma who rightly look to the U.S. as a beacon of home,” said the vice president for government relations and public policy at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Gideon Aronoff. “Our view is that Congress should undertake the difficult process of doing comprehensive immigration reform and not basically try to pull a fast one by focusing on asylum issues, which is not the real problem.”

The driver’s license issue has been a hot topic in New York since the state Department of Motor Vehicles sent out more than 450,000 no-match letters to individuals with fraudulent licenses last spring. More than 50 New York immigrant, labor, and religious groups – far more than from any other state – signed a letter to Congress warning the driver’s license provisions will “result in an increased number of unlicensed, uninsured drivers on our roads.”

“The provisions that he has introduced with regard to the driver’s licenses don’t make the country any safer,” said Gouri Sadhwani, the executive director of the New York Civic Participation Project, one of the signers of the letter. “They would just prohibit in New York State hundreds of thousands of immigrants from legally getting licenses.”

A policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, Deborah Meyers, said it is likely some of the provisions will become law in the next few years, particularly the increased standardization of driver’s licenses – a key recommendation of the September 11 commission. Others, like reforming the asylum system, were less likely, she said.

The Real ID Act was co-sponsored by three GOP New York congressmen: Rep. Vito Fossella, Rep. John Sweeney, and Rep. John McHugh.