PHOENIX (AP) -Immigrant rights advocates criticized a proposal Thursday at the Arizona Legislature that would create a state-run guest worker program.

The federal government now runs the program where foreign workers are permitted to enter the country for temporary work.

Hector Yturralde, president of Somos America, a coalition of groups that has organized immigration protests in Phoenix, said the proposed state-run program doesn’t provide the housing and wage protections that are in the federal program and thus would leave workers open to labor abuses.

``This is a federal issue. The states need to stay out of it,’’ Yturralde said.

Supporters of the proposed state-run program said it would help lessen Arizona’s labor shortage and would result in fewer illegal crossings of the Arizona-Mexico border.

Senate Minority Leader Marsha Arzberger, a Democrat from Willcox and a co-author of the proposal, said the measures would ensure guest workers would get paid the same wages and receive the same health benefits as their American counterparts.

``This is a purely Arizona-specific answer to Arizona’s economic problem,’’ Arzberger said. ``This is not a comprehensive immigration reform bill.’’

The Arizona proposal, which have cleared one committee in one of the two chambers of the Legislature, would allow employers who experienced skilled labor shortages and can’t find local employees to recruit workers through Mexican consulates.

An approved skilled foreign worker would get an ID card valid for two years and could travel to and from Mexico through ports of entry in Arizona. They would be prohibited from traveling to other American states.

Criminal background checks would be required of the foreign workers, who would be disqualified if they were convicted of U.S. crimes or Mexican violations that would be felonies in this country.

Somos America: http://somosamerica.org/

Arizona Legislature: http://www.azleg.gov/