The debate over immigration reform is gaining momentum on Capitol Hill, where senators soon will be faced with two competing bills that offer different ways to implement the president’s proposed guest-worker program.

Elements of both plans, the first by Senators Kennedy and McCain and the other being developed by Senators Cornyn and Kyl, should come under scrutiny today during hearings on security and immigration control along the southern border of America.

“At the beginning of this year, people said immigration as an issue in the Senate was dead. It’s now clear that that’s not true,” said a spokesman for Senator Cornyn, Don Stewart. While the issue has been revived, however, the chances that either proposal will get approved in the current Senate session are still far from settled, he said.

Messrs. Kennedy and McCain joined forces last month to introduce a comprehensive immigration reform bill that builds upon President Bush’s proposal for a guest-worker program. Their bill, which was also sponsored by Representatives Jim Kolbe, Jeff Flake, and Luis Gutierrez, includes new security measures, a guest-worker program, and a path to legalization for the estimated 8 to 12 million illegal immigrants in America.

Messrs. Kyl and Cornyn are now working on their own proposed legislation, charging that there are not adequate enforcement measures in the Kennedy/McCain plan, and that any reform should be a “work-and-return” – not a “work-and-stay” – model. Last month, they introduced the enforcement provisions of their proposal, which would include streamlining deportation of criminal aliens, strengthening interior enforcement, and expanding expedited removal at the borders.

Mr. Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, has said the plan, by pairing enforcement with reform, will implement the principles Mr. Bush proposed early last year. In January 2004, the president presented a plan for a new temporary worker system that would match foreign workers with jobs Americans are not filling. While he said his proposal was “not an amnesty,” it did include measures for illegal immigrants living in America to gain legal status.

In the Kyl-Cornyn proposal, which the senators expect to introduce by the end of the month, undocumented immigrants can only regularize their immigration status would involve first returning to their country of origin, Mr. Stewart said.

While there are clear differences between the senators’ proposals, a broad spectrum of politicians have gotten involved in the debate, Mr. Stewart said. So far this year, the Senate subcommittee on immigration, which Mr. Cornyn chairs, has had six hearings on reform – five more than the year before. “You’ll see more and more concrete ideas and opinions rather than just the loudest screamers,” he said.

Those promoting immigration reform are hopeful the competing proposals will present an opportunity to move ahead with practical solutions to the nation’s broken immigration system.

Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said the two approaches to fixing the system are actually complementary. “Ideally, people will choose the best from each proposal and combine them,” she said.