WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An immigration bill being written in the Senate aims to wipe out nearly all illegal crossings along the southwestern border with Mexico while maintaining a 13-year timetable for existing illegal residents to win citizenship, sources said on Wednesday.

The carefully crafted language is intended to attract Republican support in Congress for comprehensive immigration legislation this year, while accommodating Democrats’ desire to help the estimated 11 million foreigners living in the United States illegally.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate negotiators on Tuesday were putting the finishing touches on a bipartisan immigration bill as labor and agriculture groups argued about restrictions on immigrant farmworkers and their pay, lawmakers and officials involved in the negotiations said.

“We’re making progress. We’re trying to get it done this week,” Senator John McCain told reporters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate will cast its first vote on President Barack Obama’s gun-control proposals on Thursday, but Democratic Leader Harry Reid said he was unsure if the bill could gain the 60 votes it needs to overcome Republican procedural hurdles.

Reid called on Republicans to drop their attempt to block debate on the gun legislation, but Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said there was no bipartisan support for the effort.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate negotiations on revamping the immigration system are stalled over wages for future low-skilled foreign workers such as construction laborers, cooks, janitors and hotel maids, sources familiar with the talks said on Friday.

Bipartisan talks aimed at producing a comprehensive immigration law – including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and a new process for controlling the flow of temporary workers – have been underway for months and were close to producing a bill.

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) – Senate negotiations on
revamping the U.S. immigration system are stalled over wages for
future low-skilled foreign workers such as construction
laborers, cooks, janitors and hotel maids, sources familiar with
the talks said on Friday.

Bipartisan talks aimed at producing a comprehensive
immigration law – including a path to citizenship for
undocumented immigrants and a new process for controlling the
flow of temporary workers – have been underway for months and
were close to producing a bill.

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) – Many members of Congress
looked pretty helpless this week as they fought to save
cherished programs in their states from across-the-board budget
cuts.

But after Congress wrapped up work on a bill to fund the
government through September, some members looked less helpless
than others. Among them was Senate Appropriations Committee
Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leading Republican lawmakers, moving to repair frayed relationships with Hispanic voters, on Tuesday put their weight behind comprehensive immigration reform efforts that will likely include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented foreigners.

Speaker John Boehner praised a bipartisan plan emerging in the House of Representatives that includes an arduous pathway to citizenship for 11 million people living in the United States illegally.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senator Rand Paul, a leading conservative Republican, on Tuesday put his weight behind comprehensive immigration reform efforts that likely will include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented foreigners.

Paul, a Republican freshman senator who has hinted at a possible 2016 run for president, delivered a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in which he ridiculed the notion of deporting the 11 million undocumented people, many of whom have lived for decades in the United States and are raising families here.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate on Monday inched closer to passage of a bill to fund federal agencies through September 30 and avoid a government shutdown at the end of this month when existing money runs out.

Racing against a March 27 deadline, senators voted 63-35 to limit debate on the legislation so that it can be approved and sent to the House of Representatives for final approval this week.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan group in the House of Representatives is close to completing work on a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would include a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, according to congressional aides.

Two of the aides confirmed on Friday that the negotiators were still trying to agree on the issue of how to handle temporary laborers coming into the United States.