Houston: US Congressional Democrats will introduce an ambitious immigration reform bill tomorrow (May 4, 2004) which seeks to offer citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants but plans to restrict inflow of more workers into the country.

The Democratic plan would offer green cards and permanent resident status to all immigrants who have been in the US for at least five years, can prove they have worked at least 24 months and have passed background and medical checks, according to a media report.

It also would loosen quotas that prevent many immigrants from bringing relatives into the US, a 'Los Angeles Times' report said.

The Democrats' proposal, coupled with the Bush plan, would frame the election-year debate on a politically sensitive issue. In many parts of the country, and especially in swing States such as Florida and New Mexico, both parties are courting immigrant constituencies.

The bill has been drafted by Senator Edward M Kennedy and Representative Luis V Gutierrez.

The democratic report is in contrast with the US President George W Bush's guest worker proposal.

The Democrats would make it harder to import so-called "guest workers" but would open the path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country.

Bush would allow illegal immigrants to become legal temporary workers, but without a promise of green cards or citizenship.