WASHINGTON, D.C. ? Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist sidestepped President Bush’s call for giving illegal immigrants temporary work permits in an election-year immigration bill the Tennessee Republican unveiled Friday.

Frist, who is seeking his party’s nomination in 2008 to succeed Bush in the White House, said the Senate would turn to his proposal to tighten borders, punish employers who hire illegal immigrants and provide more visas if the Senate Judiciary Committee doesn’t complete a broader bill in the next 10 days.

A clear majority on the 18-member committee has come out in favor of a “guest worker” program that would let employed illegal immigrants remain in the U.S. – at least temporarily – rather than be deported. The committee members agreed Friday to try to come up with a substitute for Frist’s bill by March 27.