WASHINGTON -- Mexicans are cheering the proposal approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to legalize undocumented migrants and provide temporary work visas.

President Vicente Fox said Tuesday the news puts his country closer to the goal of "legalization for everyone" who works in the United States.

The full Senate began debate Tuesday on the measure passed Monday by the committee.

That bill would pump new resources into the U.S. Border Patrol, clear the way for 11 million illegal immigrants to seek U.S. citizenship and create a guest worker program supported by President George W. Bush but rejected by the House.

The committee also voted to strip out proposed criminal penalties for residents found to be in this country illegally. Those sanctions are favored in the House.

Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant group, described the committee's work as, "A big day for us."

On Monday, President George W. Bush said that the country should reform immigration laws so that they meet the needs of the 21st century.

Speaking at a naturalization ceremony in Philadelphia, he also said that, "Nobody benefits when illegal immigrants live in the shadows of society."

First, the border needs to be secure. "Terrorists crossing the border could create destruction on a massive scale," Bush said. "Our objective is to keep the border open to trade and tourism and closed to criminals and drug dealers and terrorists."

Second, while suspected smugglers, terrorists, gang members and human traffickers must be caught and prosecuted, immigration laws within the United States need to be reformed, Bush said.

Along with a guest worker program that would let foreigners gain legal status for a set amount of time to do specific jobs, Bush said he wants tamper-proof ID cards to keep track of temporary workers in the country on a legal basis. Such a program would not represent amnesty for those who are in the country illegally now.

Nevada students joined California and Texas teens who abandoned their classrooms for immigration demonstrations on the street Tuesday.

A schools spokesman in Las Vegas says several hundred high school students walked out and some headed toward the Vegas Strip to protest legislative crackdowns on illegal immigration.

For a second day, thousands of Los Angeles students left their classrooms in defiance of campus lockdowns and pouring rain.

In Texas, teenagers packed trains and jammed roads to join big-city rallies. In Dallas, school officials said missing class for a second day is "unexcused," and they planned on putting those absences on students' records.