"This proposal is a lot closer to what we have been asking for," said Jorge Mújica, the secretary general of the International Coalition of Mexicans Abroad.

Two senators, a top Democrat and a Republican, on Wednesday proposed an immigration reform bill that would allow undocumented migrants, who have lived in the United States for five years and worked for at least four, to apply for permanent U.S. residence.

The bill by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat from South Dakota, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, would also help reunite separated families by increasing funding for a backlog of visas waiting to be processed.

Mújica said the HagelDaschel bill was far superior to Bush's plan because "it offers a clear path to permanent residency and citizenship."

Bush's outline for a guest worker program which he presented in general terms on Jan. 6, but has yet to draw up as a concrete proposal calls for granting workers possibly renewable three-year working permits.

An open letter published Thursday by five major Mexican U.S.-based migrant political organizations said Bush's plan was just a "temporary work program," to exploit cheap migrant labor and "later leave them without any migratory status, in line to be deported."

Mexican lawmakers also said the U.S. senators' proposal was superior to Bush's outline.

"This would be an extraordinary plan, because the people want to stay there, where their families are, their ties," Sen. Elías Moreno Brizuela told Notimex. However, he said there was little chance the proposal would be approved by the U.S. Congress.

A group of Mexican senators announced on Tuesday that they would form a working group to lobby their U.S. counterparts for "an integral migration accord." Mexican senators will travel to Washington D.C. next week to begin lobbying U.S. lawmakers to ensure immigration proposals benefit Mexicans.

President Vicente Fox has sought a migration accord with the U.S. since taking office. But immigration reform was pushed off the table by the Sept.11 terrorist attacks that increased U.S. border security concerns. Mexico's refusal to support the United States U.N. resolution to invade Iraq further chilled bilateral relations.

But Bush's announcement has renewed the debate in the United States and initiated new talks with the Fox administration.

Between four to five million Mexicans live and work illegally in the United States, and the government estimates nearly 400,000 new and returning migrants headed north every year since 2000.

On Wednesday, Fox's administration announced it would continue to lobby for a binational accord that would benefit both Mexicans already living in the United States and the hundreds of thousands who seek to move there every year in search of work.

The government reported Wednesday that unemployment levels were at their highest in six years.