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WASHINGTON — Sen. Pete Domenici is enthusiastically backing a new compromise on immigration reform, but Sen. Jeff Bingaman says he is holding off until he sees the entire 380-page bill.

The package announced late Thursday would allow 400,000 guest workers into the country each year, create a new points system for legal immigration giving credit to work skills, and allow the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the United States a 13-year-path to citizenship if they learn English, pay a $5,000 fine and stay employed and out of trouble.

But most of the provisions would not be triggered until the Border Patrol was built up to 18,000 agents, and 370 miles of fencing, 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 70 radar and camera towers were funded for the southern border with Mexico.

"They're the triggers that people told us they wanted," said Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican.

"I support it," Domenici said of the bill. "Anything like this can be criticized, but I think considering the mess we're in that we've just got to proceed to get this bill to the floor of the Senate and get it passed."

Bingaman, a Silver City Democrat, was pleased that Democratic and Republican negotiators included a provision he backed last year to authorize $50 million annually for law enforcement agencies within 100 miles of the border. But he won't commit to backing the measure until he considers all its parts, he said.

One problem for Bingaman is the number of guest workers permitted each year under the bill - 400,000. Last year, the bill from the Senate Judiciary Committee also started out at 400,000 and then dropped to 325,000, but a Bingaman-sponsored amendment knocked the number down to 200,000.

He said he was concerned that too many guest workers would put pressure on the jobs of American workers, in effect reducing their wages.

Bingaman told The Tribune he still believes 200,000 is "about the right number," but that he is not one to "jump the boat" over just one provision.

Domenici was not as involved in negotiations over the bill as the measure he and Bingaman voted for last year. Instead, Domenici worked with Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, who opposed last year's bill but was designated by the GOP as its point man on the issue.

"It's not perfect," Kyl said of the new measure. "But it represents the best opportunity that we have in a bipartisan way to do something about this problem."

Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, took a similar tack about the concessions he made to get Republicans on board, principally the triggers and adding skills to the requirements for future immigrants.

"Politics is the art of the possible. And the agreement we just reached is the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders, bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America," said Kennedy.

Another GOP negotiator, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, predicted the bill would be overwhelmingly supported in the Senate, but opposition was already mounting in the House.

Rep. Ed Royce, a California Republican and immigration hard-liner, called the Senate compromise a "sell-out to the open-borders lobby."

Added Rep. Virgil Goode, a Virginia Republican, "It is a destruction of our sovereignty."

Last year the House refused to consider the Senate-passed bill.

Instead, Congress passed a bill authorizing 800 miles of fence along the border, including the section in New Mexico from Columbus to El Paso.

Only two miles have been built.

Most New Mexico officials oppose the fence, and the new bill could be its death knell.

President Bush embraced the compromise, saying the agreement "will help enforce our borders, but equally importantly, it will treat people with respect."

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told reporters, "Every country in the developed world in the 21st century is going to have to address immigration. And every country who wants to grow and prosper is going to have to embrace immigration."