I'd be willing to agree to that and support that.
Just as long as the fence people understood, clearly, that there would be an expansion of the guest worker program on the table next year, as well as some path to citizenship for some or most of those already here.
Who needs an expansion? Why?
Maybe as a booster of the "guest worker program" that so many Reps say we "neeeeeed!" You can explain why. They never get around to that part.
"Just as long as the fence people understood, clearly, that there would be an expansion of the guest worker program on the table next year, as well as some path to citizenship for some or most of those already here."
Amnesty, guest worker, etc. would all be on the table for discussion in the next Congress, sure. Whether any of those things would actually get THROUGH the next Congress would be a future political fight whose outcome is not currently knowable.
Probably the best way to do it for everybody is to get the fence under construction THIS year. That saves the GOP in November.
Then, next year, don't focus on guest worker, which really undermines the fence by bringing more and more in. Instead, focus on amnesty for those already here (since more can't come in significant numbers once the fence is up). Make it a humanitarian and Christian-focused issue. And get the organizers at work in the Latino community to talk about family values and the widespread Latino opposition to abortion. Prepare the field so that social conservatives can see political value in slowly allowing Hispanics already here to be regularized, how this won't simply mean adding 18 million liberal welfare Democrats to the rolls. With political organization among the Hispanics, make it a quid pro quo arrangement.
Then you can get a slow amnesty going without blowing up the party again.
And then just let economics run its course. The economy is near full employment. There are plenty of jobs to do. An effective fence will start to pinch the labor market. That will make the existing unemployed, such as there are, more employable, and stabilize the lot of the low-skilled workers - Latino competition will die away. Regularization will make the Hispanics here eligible for labor protections, and will further press the labor market. Within a few years, a growing economy and the lack of labor will have driven up the price of many things, and employment will be so plentiful and low skilled workers so secure, that the political pressure to allow more Latino immigration for American economic reasons will become overwhelming. Then you can get a guest worker program. Guest worker is an issue that should be allowed to ripen and become obvious. Trying to grasp that fruit now will just blow up the party.
Don't push the river, it'll flow by itself.