WASHINGTON — Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the federal government should require high-technology Social Security cards to make sure employers hire only legal workers.

“A tamper-proof ID system would dramatically decrease illegal immigration, experts have said, and would reduce the government revenue lost when employers and workers here illegally fail to pay taxes,’’ the lawmakers wrote in an article on the website of The Washington Post.

They called for use of biometric Social Security cards that would include a unique characteristic of the cardholder, such as a fingerprint.

The proposal is part of what Graham and Schumer termed a “draft framework’’ for overhauling immigration laws. The framework includes proposals for a temporary worker program and penalties that would allow illegal immigrants to stay after taking steps such as paying fines and performing community service.

“America’s security and economic well-being depend on enacting sensible immigration policies,’’ they wrote.

President Obama, in a statement, called the senators’ proposal a “promising, bipartisan framework which can and should be the basis for moving forward.’’ Obama met with Schumer and Graham last week to discuss the proposal, the senators wrote.

Obama’s statement said he would “do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus’’ on the issue.

Graham, however, cautioned yesterday that the push for an immigration measure would fail if congressional Democrats succeed in passing the overhaul of the health care system sought by Obama. House Democratic leaders are seeking to pass the latest version of the legislation tomorrow. “The first casualty of the Democratic health care bill will be immigration reform,’’ he said in a statement.

“If they do this, it’s going to poison the well for anything else they would like to achieve this year or thereafter,’’ Graham told ABC.

A demonstration in Washington in support of overhauling immigration laws is scheduled for tomorrow. The event’s sponsors include the National Council of La Raza, the AFL-CIO labor federation, and the Service Employees International Union.

Past bipartisan efforts to revise immigration policy include legislation cosponsored by Senators John McCain of Arizona, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, and the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat. Even the support of then-President George W. Bush failed to push the measure forward in Congress in 2007.

Schumer and Graham would require those already in the United States illegally, an estimated 11 million, to admit they had broken the law, pay fines and back taxes, and perform community service projects. They also would be required to pass a background check and learn English.

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