Comprehensive" immigration reform implies compromises among these interests.In
2007 Congress considered a comprehensive 789-page bill, cosponsored by Senators Edward
M- Kennedy and John McCain, that included the following major provisions: strengthening
border enforcement, including funding of 700 miles of fencing, granting legal status to
millions of undocumented immigrants currently living in the country;providing a path to
citizenship that includes criminal background checks, paying fines and fees, and acquiring English proficiency; establishing, a temporary (two-year) guest worker program; shifting the criteria for legal immigration from family-based preferences to a greater emphasis on skills and education. But opponents of one or another of these various provisions, both Democrats
and Republicans, united to defeat the bill in the U.S. Senate.