By host Tom Ashbrook:

By a vote of 12 to 6, the US Senate Judiciary Committee drew a chasm through Capitol Hill yesterday on immigration.

The sweeping immigration bill reported out with a thumbs up by the all the committee’s Democrats and four of its divided Republicans, would legalize the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants and open the nation’s borders to 400,000 guest workers a year.

Across the Capitol building, a House bill would make illegal immigrants felons, and make helping them a crime. President Bush says “be civil” but this is a Grand Canyon standoff over the biggest immigration reform — one way or another — in decades.

Hear about the latest immigration debate heating up on Capitol Hill.

Guests:

Nicole Gaouette, covers immigration for the Los Angeles Times.;

John Judis, Senior editor for The New Republic.;

Whit Ayres, Republican pollster and President of Ayres, McHenry & Associates.;

Tamar Jacoby, Senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of “Reinventing the Melting Pot: The New Immigrants and What It Means To Be American.”;

Ira Mehlman, Policy Analyst at the Federation for American Immigration Reform.