George W. Bush on Wednesday hailed as “historic” a bipartisan Senate compromise that offers the best hope in years of reforming America’s broken immigration system.

The deal, which was hammered out over the last month by 10 senators including Ted Kennedy, the Democrat from Massachusetts and Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina, would provide “a pathway” to US citizenship for the 12m “undocumented workers” already in the United States.