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WASHINGTON — Gov. Bill Richardson moved today to assert himself as a major force in the Democratic Party's debate over immigration reform by calling on Congress not to build a 700-mile fence on the Mexican border and to approve a path to legalization for most of the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the United States.

"I reject the cheap rhetoric we heard in this year's campaign, and I reject the fears of some Democrats that taking action will cause our party political harm," Richardson said in a speech at Georgetown University.

Richardson said those illegal immigrants should have to pay a fine for breaking the law. Foreign guest workers also would have to carry a tamper-proof worker identification document, he said.

But Richardson did not propose making illegal immigrants go back to their country of origin before re-entering the United States, a feature of several of the immigration proposals in Congress this year.

The new Democratic leaders of Congress have not put immigration reform at the top of their agenda after a campaign in which most Republicans battered Democrats over the issue.

Nor has it been emphasized so far by any of the Democrats who, like Richardson, are considering a run for president in 2008.

Richardson, elected to his second term last month, said now is the time to act.

"I believe the American people are better than the demagogues think we are and that the voters proved it on Nov. 7. The most extreme candidates lost across the country," Richardson said.

"Seventy percent of Hispanic citizens voted Democratic and most non-Hispanics also rejected the divisive politics of the anti-immigrant extremists," he said.

Richardson said Congress has to recognize that "like it or not," illegal immigrants have "become part of the fabric of our economy and our culture."

"If we're going to tell the truth, we'll admit that entire sectors of our economy rely on these laborers - construction, restaurants and agriculture, for example," said Richardson, who was born in California to an American father and a Mexican mother.

Richardson also proposed a big increase in the quotas for legal immigrants, from 140,000 a year to 400,000 a year for temporary and permanent workers and doubling the number of visas for family members, from 480,000 to 960,000 a year.

Some labor unions - a major force in Democratic politics - oppose raising those quotas.

Richardson did propose doubling the number of Border Patrol agents to 24,000, but Congress already is on a path in its appropriations bills to hit that number. Richardson said the funding could come by not building the 700-mile fence.

"No fence ever built has stopped history and this one wouldn't either. The Congress should abandon the fence, lock, stock and barrel," said Richardson.

If the fence is not built, Mexico would cooperate to control illegal immigration, Richardson suggested.

Richardson was scheduled for a round of TV interviews later in the day.

Richardson spoke at Georgetown University with some new status.

Earlier today, the Organization of American States appointed Richardson as Special Envoy for Hemispheric Relations to work on immigration and economic development.

On Wednesday, Richardson presided over the end of two days of meetings here between New Mexico officials and the counterparts in the Mexican state of Chihuahua with federal officials from the Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, Justice and State.

Richardson and Chihuahua's governor, Jose Reyes Baeza, said they plan to work on a number of projects to develop industry along the border, including a rail line from the Gulf of California through Chihuahua and into southern New Mexico. Baeza said the line would shorten the distance for Chinese imports to reach the eastern United States by 300 miles compared to the port of Long Beach, Calif.

Richardson added, "We're looking at the border as one region and we're saying to the rest of the world, from international businesses to U.S. companies, please see us as an integrated border, not completing with each other."