Senate group resolves key issues on immigration reform: lawmakers

(Reuters) – With business and labor now in agreement, a bipartisan group of senators has resolved all major issues in a pending deal to overhaul the immigration system and aims to unveil it after Congress reconvenes in the second week of April, key lawmakers said on Sunday.

The lawmakers said that while there was no final deal yet, they hope and even expect there to be one soon after the measure is put into legislative language so all eight senators in the group can review it.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest business group, and the AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation, reached an elusive agreement on a guest-worker program on Friday, clearing the way for the writing of a full bill.

The bill will include an earned pathway to U.S. citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, bolstered border security and ways for business to meet the need for both high-skilled and low-skilled workers.

“With the agreement between business and labor, every major policy issue has been resolved,” said Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and a member of the so-called Gang of Eight, which has four Democrats and four Republicans.

“We’ve all agreed that we’re not going to come to a final agreement until we see draft legislative language and we agree on that,” Schumer told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

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