Senate Democrats will resume the immigration debate tomorrow with an effort to call up legislation to allow some children of illegal immigrants to remain in the United States and earn legal status.

Wednesday’s vote on whether to proceed to debate on the so-called DREAM Act is a test to see if the chamber is ready to support a piecemeal approach to legalization of some of the 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

The billl, sponsored by Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., would allow the children of illegal immigrants who entered the United States before age 16 and lived here at least five years to gain conditional legal status and eventual citizenship if they attend college or join the military for at least two years.

A spokesman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., implied that the chamber should be focused on moving the unfinished fiscal 2008 spending bills instead of addressing the DREAM Act.

“It’s curious, though, now that we’re in the fourth week of the new fiscal year, and still haven’t sent a single appropriations bill to the president, why we’re setting aside the funding bills for non-emergency issues,” said McConnell spokesman Don Stewart.

Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said Wednesday’s vote will be a “litmus test” on whether the GOP will support any immigration measure. “I doubt we can do anything else on immigration, from my perspective,” Menendez said. “If we can’t make progress with children, I don’t know how the business community gets AgJobs.”

That is a separate bill legalizing the status of immigrant farm workers that some senators want to attach to a big five-year farm policy bill when it reaches the floor later this month.