The prospect of comprehensive immigration overhaul legislation died a public death in June 2007, but the notion of targeted immigration changes has continued to live on in proposals seeking to provide special help for narrow categories of foreigners, one at a time.

But as they work their way through Congress, these measures are facing some political hurdles of their own. Advocates of comprehensive reform, especially the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and its allies in the House Democratic leadership, are critical of piecemeal approaches, and have refused to permit reauthorizations of programs providing visas to thousands of would-be immigrants and temporary workers to move forward – despite strong support for such programs on both sides of the aisle. Their bet is that keeping steady pressure on the businesses and unions calling for relief will create more allies in a renewed fight for comprehensive reforms next year.

A few highly specialized fields could still come out winners this year. While foreign agricultural workers and high-tech industry specialists appear to have gotten the congressional cold shoulder, foreign clergy, investors, rural primary care physicians, athletes, and fashion models could yet receive a thumbs-up in the House. Even if they do, though, it’s far from clear the Senate will find the time or the political consensus to act.

The House recently passed bills that would renew programs that give green cards, or permanent resident status, to a limited number of foreign graduates of U.S. medical schools employed as primary care physicians in rural areas (HR 5571) and foreign investors pledging $1 million or more to develop companies that employ at least 10 U.S. citizens (HR 5569). The House also voted to give five-year extendable visas to religious workers.

The R-1 religious worker visa, EB-5 investor visa, and J-1 “Conrad State 30” visa waivers, which allow 30 foreign doctors per state, are all due to expire Sept. 30.

House leaders are also expected to vote in September on bills extending the availability of P-1 visa renewals to foreign professional athletes (HR 5060), and creating a new, P-4 category of visas for foreign fashion models (HR 4080).

That these bills would move through the House while others have not, immigration experts say, is not a surprise.

“We have the same discussion every three years – they always wait until the last minute,” said Charles Kuck, president of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association.

These bills are far less ambitious than recent proposals to triple the allotment of visas for workers in high-tech industries (H-1B) or remove caps on the number of seasonal visas (H-2B), which have failed to gain traction in committees, or an initiative to make 20,000 green cards a year available for nurses, a measure that earned a strong rebuke from Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., before a House Judiciary subcommittee approved it last week.

The difference is twofold – the bills to make visas available to religious workers, a few rich businessmen, 1,500 rural doctors and fewer than 1,000 models annually simply do not have the economic breadth and reach of proposals for tens of thousands of extra high-tech worker (H-1B) visas or seasonal workers (H-2B) visas; and they do not represent permanent visa categories.

The message then, from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus – which has taken no official position on the aforementioned measures, according to an aide with close ties to the caucus – and other advocates of comprehensive reforms has not been so much inconsistent as it has been nuanced: large-scale expansions of existing programs must wait, but where a lack of action means narrow visa programs would actually be eradicated, bills get an all-clear to pass.

It’s much the same approach as comprehensive reform advocates took to a five-year reauthorization of E-Verify (HR 6633), a voluntary but controversial work-eligibility verification system set to expire in November, which nonetheless passed the House 407-2 on July 31.

“We’re keeping in place essential elements that we will need when we are ready to move back to discussing comprehensive reforms,” Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said at the time of the E-Verify vote.

“Our philosophy is ‘do the least harm’,” said Gutierrez in explaining his support for the E-Verify reauthorization.

But the Senate is another matter, as the clock will be ticking once lawmakers return from recess. A proposal (S 3257) by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., that bundles the reauthorizations of R-1, EB-5, and J-1 “Conrad State 30” waivers with E-Verify reauthorization was placed on the Senate calendar shortly before Congress broke for the summer recess period.

But a group of Republican senators, including Specter, has since written Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., requesting that he instead bring forward an E-Verify reauthorization unfettered by other programs, even non-controversial ones – in order that it better match with the House-passed version.

“Since there is very little time left in this session, we urge you to support a straight reauthorization of E-Verify,” read the July 29 letter, which made no mention of alternative vehicles to carry the specialized visa reauthorizations forward.

Senate leaders have not yet indicated a strategy for how votes on the visa reauthorizations might be staged, but if an awkward interruption of some visa availability is to be avoided, the proposals may have to move forward in advance of E-Verify legislation, which bears a later expiration date. Fitting it all into a crowded Senate session, though, could still prove to be an insurmountable obstacle. And that could leave some foreign athletes, doctors and models on the outside looking in.