US:Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are struggling to agree on an immigration reform Bill in advance of a deadline next Monday, despite signs that the shape of a deal is emerging.
Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate judiciary committee, said this week that a bipartisan group is considering a plan that would improve border security and introduce tougher penalties for employers of illegal immigrants before undocumented immigrants could begin to regularise their status.
"We have come to an agreement on what we have called a 'grand bargain,' which is the outline of an immigration Bill," Mr Specter said.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid has said that, if no new legislation is ready by Monday, he will reintroduce a Bill that was approved by the Senate last year but failed to win over the House of Representatives.
Support for last year's Bill, which would have allowed most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the US to remain in the country and eventually apply for citizenship, has diminished.
Democrats now accept that illegal immigrants would have to go home briefly before returning to the US legally and would have to pay a substantial fine as well as paying all back taxes and showing that they can speak English before benefiting from the measure
Legislators on both sides of the debate believe time is growing short for an immigration Bill that can pass both houses before presidential politics take hold.
For weeks now, a dozen senators have met regularly with two Cabinet members representing the White House in an effort to draft a new bill.
Mr Reid said that senators knew about Monday's deadline for two months and he saw no reason to change it.
"Anyone who thinks two months is not enough time to get ready should get another occupation," he said.
Many Republicans, particularly in the House of Representatives, remain fiercely opposed to any measure that smacks of offering an "amnesty" for illegal immigrants.
The debate has moved on since last year, however, and few leading Republicans now argue for deporting illegal immigrants while most accept that they must be given some way to remain in the US legally.
The two sides disagree on the size of the fines illegal immigrants should have to pay, with many Democrats arguing that a White House proposal to charge $10,000 for an application for citizenship discriminates against poorer immigrants.
There is further disagreement over the right of immigrants on temporary visas to bring family members to the US.
Immigration reform represents one of the few domestic issues on which president George Bush can hope to work successfully with Democrats in Congress but Republican congressman Peter King warned this week that liberal immigration legislation would face tough opposition within both parties.
"It's important that the Senate know that now there is strong opposition in the House of Representatives.
It's bipartisan opposition to amnesty," he said.