WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Two senior U.S. Senators who are working together to broker an immigration reform plan on Sunday expressed optimism that a bill could be ready within this week.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator John McCain, members of the Senate group dubbed as "Gang of 8," appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday talking about latest progress to reach a deal on immigration bill.
"I think that we hope that we can have a bipartisan agreement among the eight of us on comprehensive immigration reform by the end of this week," said Schumer.
He said great progress has been made over the last two weeks, and each one of those "kerfuffles along the way" has been settled thus far.
"We need to have a path to citizenship and we need to have secure borders, and we also have to address the issue of 40 percent of the people who came here illegally," said McCain, a long-time advocate to overhaul the nation's broken immigration system.
The White House said last week it was "encouraged" by the " continuing signs of progress" of the Senate "Gang of 8."
The Senate group of eight bipartisan members unveiled their framework for immigration reform in January, one day before President Barack Obama released his ideas on the controversial issue. The group has since been negotiating the details of their plan that would create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country, toughen border security, and boost high-skilled immigration.
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