What’s going on in Washington’s endless skirmish over immigration is a struggle for home-field advantage, about who’ll have the upper hand when Congress returns after November’s elections and takes up the unresolved immigration issue.

This is one time when the struggle for power affects more than Washington insiders. It matters to folks on the streets in states like California, Texas and Georgia, who live with daily reminders about why Congress must create a sane immigration system.

The struggle also will impact whether President Bush can generate momentum for his other domestic initiatives next year, including taking a swing at overhauling entitlements and the tax code. If immigration stalls – and after his failed overhaul of Social Security – he will lack any push to get other issues off dead center. Congress may think, “Why bother with this guy?”

More on that in a moment. Here’s what happened last week before Congress recessed to go home and campaign:

The House got the Senate to go along with 700 miles of border fence, probably between Douglas, Ariz., and the Pacific Ocean. The Senate previously approved 370 miles, but early Saturday it went for the whole House enchilada.

The natural impulse would be to believe the House’s shut-the-border, security-first-and-only caucus had gained the advantage. But below the surface, where most of the action really takes place, some bigger-thinking Republican senators actually gained the initiative.

Led by Sen. Arlen Specter, they said there was no way the House would force the Senate’s hand by dumping a bunch of other border-security measures into spending bills. This wasn’t just any group of senators. It included John Warner, Larry Craig and Thad Cochran. They had the seniority and conservative credentials to arm-wrestle House Speaker Dennis Hastert when he muscled his way into the debate.

This Senate group basically told him to take the other border-security measures out of the spending bills or the government shuts down. The speaker blinked, eliminating such proposals as enhancing the authority of state and local law officers to enforce federal immigration laws.

The House’s security-only caucus got its fence and more border agents, but that’s it. Even the fence isn’t fully funded, with money enough to build only about half of the 700 miles. As one immigration advocate put it, House conservatives spent a year pushing for border security and got only a half-funded fence. That’s not a lot.

What this means is it’s still possible for the White House and Senate immigration reformers like John McCain and Mel Martinez to press after the elections for more. They want a guest worker program to deal with the 400,000 or so illegal immigrants who come here each year and a chance for some of the nation’s 12 million illegal immigrants to earn citizenship.

There are different ways to achieve those goals, including the compromise presented by two Republicans, Sen. Kay Hutchison and Rep. Mike Pence. Their proposal requires the federal government to certify the border is secure before their guest worker program and limited citizenship opportunity kick in.

Whatever the framework, it’s good that these senators pushed back. There’s still a chance to better control the flow of illegal immigrants, which a fence won’t entirely stop, unless we’re planning to patrol it the way the Israelis do their barrier with the Palestinians. And that would be prohibitively expensive and misread the U.S.-Mexican relationship.

Trying to satisfy his right flank, Bush will sign the fence bill, but he had better watch it. His best chance to get Congress to sign onto broader immigration reform is in the month after the election, when both chambers may want to get the issue off the agenda.

If he can’t get it done then, Bush has about six to eight months in 2007. By August, he can expect the 2008 presidential election to crowd out unfinished parts of his domestic agenda.

Senate reformers have stopped the House from gaining a home-field edge and have leveled the playing field. Bush and the rest of the Senate must capitalize on the momentum soon after the election. If not, all we get is part of a fence – and no real answer to the immigration crisis.

William McKenzie is a Dallas Morning News editorial columnist. His e-mail address is wmckenzie dallasnews.com.

William McKenzie is an editorial columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Readers may write to him at the Dallas Morning News, Communications Center, Dallas, Texas 75265; e-mail: [email protected].