Congress open to passing bill on immigration

"Congress will approve an immigration bill that will grant citizenship rights to most of the 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. after Democrats take control next month, predict both sides on Capitol Hill.

While Republicans have been largely splintered on the issue of immigration reform, Democrats have been fairly unified behind the principle that the illegals currently in the country should get citizenship rights without having to first leave the country.

'Years of dawdling have worsened our border security and made it harder to fix this broken system,' said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who will lead the Judiciary Committee next year. 'We should not let partisan politics and intolerance continue to delay and derail effective reform.'

Democrats in both chambers say they will start with some form of legislation first drafted by Sens. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, which was the basis for the bill that was approved earlier this year by the Senate." MORE....