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PHOENIX — Efforts to enact the first-ever state-run guest-worker program hit a snag Monday over the question of which industries should benefit.

Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said he is willing to let agricultural workers in, but if the program is any broader, he will lead the charge to kill it.

Pearce's opposition could be pivotal. He not only is the author of the state's new employer-sanctions law but has marshaled votes in the Republican-controlled Legislature to approve other immigration and border-security measures.

He said he could support a limited state guest-worker program proposed by Sen. Marsha Arzberger, D-Willcox, and Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford, because they have included some safeguards to prevent temporary workers from becoming permanent U.S. residents or getting taxpayer-subsidized services.

Arzberger and Konopnicki filed a new version of their measure Monday in hopes of finding a politically acceptable state solution to what they say is a shortage of workers in certain industries. Efforts to expand existing federal work visa programs have gone nowhere in Congress.

Pearce said he believes farmers have shown they are unable to get workers in a timely fashion to harvest their perishable products.

Although supportive of using the program to bring in agricultural workers, Pearce said he couldn't support it for other industries. "I can't support importing workers when we're having Americans laid off," he said. Pearce cited the construction industry in particular.

Arzberger, the Senate minority leader, said that restricting the program to agricultural workers is unacceptable. She said there are other industries that are unable to fill certain jobs with legal U.S. workers.

"We've got small businesses that are in danger of leaving the state," she said. "We've got other industries that need these workers."

"It's just not true," Pearce responded. He said if U.S. companies "pay the right wages they will get the right workers."

Pearce said the "free-market economy" should be allowed to work, with the value of labor based on what it takes for companies to attract qualified people.

Arzberger, however, said a company can't qualify to import foreign workers solely based on an unwillingness to pay more.

"They have to say that, 'We have taken these steps to locate local work force and nobody has applied, nobody's answered our ads,'" she said.

And Arzberger said this isn't designed to help the fast-food industry and others looking for low-skilled workers but wanting to keep their labor costs down. She said the owner of a steel-fabrication firm is offering $50 an hour for qualified workers "and he still can't get them."

Pearce also complained of what he sees as a loophole that could lead to more undocumented workers in this state and country.

He noted the legislation allows the state Industrial Commission, which would issue ID cards to foreign workers, to revoke those cards if the person disappears. Revocation, he said, is meaningless once someone is in this country and can simply walk away from a job and disappear.

Pearce said employers who bring foreign workers into this country should be required to put up a bond.

Even if the measure is approved, it may never take effect.

Arzberger acknowledged only the U.S. Department of Homeland Security can decide whom to admit to the country and whether to honor any temporary worker ID cards issued by the state. She said there have been some preliminary discussions with the federal agency.

Russ Knocke, press aide to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, said he could not comment specifically on the Arizona proposal. But he said the fact Arizona is pushing ahead with its own plan shows the need for Congress to approve a comprehensive immigration-reform proposal, one that also deals with the labor needs of U.S. companies.