Cancel this road show.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The nation needs a rehash of the illegal immigration debate like it needs another border - or another Congress.

Instead of rolling up their sleeves and reaching a necessary compromise with the U.S. Senate and President Bush, Republican leaders in the House have announced they want to hear more from constituents about immigration reform in a summer-long series of public hearings in Arizona, California and Texas.

"We are going to listen to the American people, and we are going to get a bill that is right," said House speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

That's classic Hastert hooey. When the speaker says he wants to get immigration reform "right," he really means that he wants to suffocate the balanced bipartisan legislation passed by the Senate that bolsters enforcement, and provides both a guest worker program and the possibility of legal residency for the 12 million undocumented immigrants who are in this country.

House Republicans have made no secret of the fact that they will not budge from the punitive and enforcement-only approach that consists primarily of building a wall and turning illegal immigrants into felons. Unlike the Senate approach, the immigration bill approved by the House last December would leave the U.S. economy desperately short of workers in agriculture, construction, the service industry and other sectors.

Hastert and company are playing election-year politics with immigration. Instead of negotiating in good faith with the Senate on the critically important issue of what to do with the millions of illegal immigrants who are in this country and who cannot be rounded up and deported, Republicans are hoping to win votes in the fall by hitting the road to denounce what they unjustifiably call the Senate's offer of "amnesty."

The Senate has responded with plans for its own road show, scheduling its hearings in the Northeast where employers strongly favor a guest worker program that is glaringly missing from the House bill.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., offered his own heaping helping of hooey. "Field hearings are an excellent way to further engage the country in this debate and show the American people that Congress can conduct its business with dignity and respect," he wrote in a letter to Hastert.

Let's be clear: There is no need for more hearings on immigration. There is a need for serious, good-faith negotiations to forge a compromise between the House and Senate approaches.

President Bush must now use what remains of his political clout to bring House and Senate negotiators back to the table and to do everything possible to make certain that the core elements of the Senate bill remain intact. They include a system of temporary work permits for foreign workers and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants - the only way to persuade millions of undocumented workers to come forward and register so the government can enforce a new work permit system. The president, who supports the Senate approach, must find a way to make House Republicans realize that the threat of mass deportation is an empty one that cannot be enforced.

House Republicans who are expecting to ride the immigration horse to victory in November should think long and hard before refusing to negotiate with the Senate. Polls show growing support for the Senate's and President Bush's comprehensive approach to reform. A recent survey by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank, polled 800 Republican voters and found an overwhelming majority in favor of a comprehensive solution, even if includes a path to permanent residency.

The House and Senate should call off their road-show charade and make an earnest effort to salvage immigration reform before the fall elections when voters will have a chance to elect a new Congress that's willing to get the job done.