From the Militant:
Republicans take ‘guest worker’ bill off table and push for tighter border

by Sam Manuel
WASHINGTON—Republican leaders in Congress have announced they are taking off the table until after the November mid-term elections—that is, until some time next year—discussion on the main “immigration reform” proposals, variants of which have been passed by the House and Senate. “House Republicans say that a Senate measure backed by Bush to create a guest-worker program is unacceptable to their party’s core constituency,” said a September 6 news dispatch by Bloomberg News.

The Republican leader in the Senate, William Frist, described the chances of getting any significant legislation passed over the coming weeks as “next to impossible.”

Dennis Hastert, speaker of the House of Representatives, said the priority for Republicans in the House would be putting together a package of enforcement proposals to tighten policing the border. “Our border is a sieve. We are at war,” said Hastert. “We need to close our borders. The Congress cannot wait until next year to take on this issue.”

Hastert and House majority leader John Boehner said the package could include more money for the Border Patrol and additional fencing and surveillance along the border with Mexico, reported Cox News Service.

****

The draconian Sensenbrenner bill is dead, and Bush's proposal for a guest-worker program is dead for this year. That's a recognition by the ruling class of the power of the mass actions by immigrant workers earlier this year.

Demonstrations for immigrants' rights will be held on Sept. 30 in a number of cities. I don't have any kind of list, but if you ask around hopefully you can find out if there's one near you.

A fair number were held Labor Day or Sept. 7, including a rally of 5,000 people in D.C.

I also read somewhere that Democrats had almost completely given up on immigration issue
The only one's protesting were Hispanic democrats who saw the action as a neglect towards "prospective democrats" meaning undocumented immgrants
This is nothing but a game, the bourgeoisie are playing politics with ppl's lives
I hope that those affected by immigration reform see what's really going on here, and take neither side

I'm not 100% sure what you mean here; but the Democratic Party has never been behind the mass actions by immigrant workers.

It's probably true that Democrats in Congress have been happy to let things stay gridlocked and not pass any bill this year.

Democrats in Congress have generally opposed the Sensenbrenner bill and supported the McCain-Kennedy bill. That bill is roughly similar to Bush's proposals - it includes a guest worker program.

Which has nothing to do with the interests of immigrant workers. Rather it increased the control by employers over workers - get out of line and you won't just be fired - your immigration status will be revoked, too.

More and more of the groups organizing these protests have correctly rejected the guest worker proposals and called simply for the legalization of all immigrants.

Right, what I meant was that most of the Democratic party in the Congress has completely forgotten and given up on working out a deal with Republicans regarding immigration reform (most Democrats want kinda like the guest worker program, while Republicans support Sensenbrener's proposal) for the time being
Therefore, all most all the Latino Democrats have begun to protest this abandonement of immigration reform
Hispanic Democrats have begun to protest because they realize its in their best interest to push for a deal on immigration reform (preferably guest worker program)
If they succeed in passing a guest worker program that will benefit many (but not all) their influence and support in the Hispanic immigrant community will rise, since most Hipanics see the immigration issue as important and crucial
Therefore, by pushing for "reform" those immigrants that will benefit are potential Democrats
Thus, it is in the Democrats best interest to push and promote the guest worker program, in order to engender support and popularity among the Hipanic community for the Democratic party