GET-TOUGH IMMIGRATION BILL OK'D : SENATE ENDORSES SWEEPING BILL TO CURTAIL ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.

Byline: Eric Schmitt The New York Times

Riding a wave of public anger against illegal immigrants, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday that would tighten America's borders and clamp down on millions of illegal immigrants living and working here.

The bill, approved by a 97-3 vote, nearly would double the size of the Border Patrol, which now numbers 5,175 agents. It would stiffen penalties against document fraud, speed deportation of immigrants who commit crimes and restrict public benefits to legal and illegal immigrants.

The senators also authorized federal pilot programs that would require employers to tap into an automated national database to verify the legal status of workers they want to hire, an approach that critics contend would lead to the introduction of a national identification card.

``We've brought forward significant changes in legal and illegal immigration that are rather sweeping,'' said Sen. Alan K. Simpson, R-Wyo., who is the bill's main author and the Senate's leading authority on immigration.

But the Senate rejected an important legal immigration provision when it buried efforts led by Simpson to cut the number of legal immigrants permitted to enter the country, now about 750,000 a year.

Both President Clinton and Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, stand to benefit politically from tough positions against illegal immigrants. More than 70 percent of the nation's legal and illegal immigrants live in six voter-rich states - California, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Florida and Illinois - where many officials are worried that immigrants unduly burden schools and other local services.

The Senate bill now must be reconciled with a version the House approved in March. The two bills are largely similar, except for provisions in the House bill that include restrictions on asylum-seekers and a measure to allow states to bar public schooling for illegal immigrants.

Clinton, who has threatened to veto any bill that includes the education provision, urged Congress to resolve other provisions the White House opposes. ``While this bill strongly supports our enforcement efforts, it still goes too far in denying legal immigrants access to vital safety-net programs which could jeopardize public health and safety,'' Clinton said in a statement. Thursday's vote capped 51 hours and 45 minutes of often emotional debate spread over eight days that was sidetracked several times by Democratic efforts to tack on provisions dealing with the Social Security trust fund and a proposed increase in the minimum wage. Three Democrats voted against the bill: Paul Simon of Illinois, Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin and Bob Graham of Florida.

The House and Senate bills largely conform with the approach the Republican Congress and Democratic White House have pursued in recent years, namely to increase law enforcement on the border with Mexico and to streamline the deportation process, particularly for immigrants convicted of crimes here.

The centerpiece of the Senate bill aims to curb the flow of the estimated 300,000 foreigners who enter the United States illegally or overstay their visas each year, and to make it more difficult for those who do come here illegally to obtain jobs and government benefits. The Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that four million illegal immigrants now live in the United States.

``The Senate is saying that at least in 1996, an election year, it is drawing a Maginot line against illegal immigration,'' said Demetrios G. Papademetriou, an immigration specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Indeed, the bill takes dead aim at the border and the workplace.

The legislation provides for an additional 700 Border Patrol agents this year, and 1,000 more agents a year from 1997 through 2000. Assuming these additional agents arrest more illegal immigrants, the bill also orders the Immigration Service to increase its detention space to at least 9,000 beds, a 66 percent increase in current capacity.

The bill also increases the maximum criminal penalties for document fraud to a $500,000 fine and 15 years in prison, from $250,000 and 5 years. Government officials would have new authority to conduct wiretaps on suspected smugglers of immigrants and bogus-document users.

``We have stuff in there that has everything but the rack and thumbscrews for people who are violating the laws of the United States,'' Simpson told reporters.

The bill takes several steps to eliminate the magnet of the ease of getting jobs that most immigration experts say is the greatest attraction this country offers illegal immigrants. To combat a booming bogus document industry, senators authorized the development of standardized, counterfeitproof birth certificates and other state-issued identification documents.

More important, senators directed the Immigration Service to test several pilot programs in states with large numbers of immigrants to find one that best allows employers to verify the legal status of people they want to hire. Congress then would review the choices, which will involve using a national computerized databank, and select one it likes.

``This bill makes it much harder for illegal aliens to falsify job applications,'' said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

An unusual coalition of conservatives who oppose big government and liberals who fear the verification program would violate workers' civil liberties failed to block the provision.