CHICAGO – Compromise.

They didn't use the word but that's what Mike Aitken of the Society of Human Resource Management and Lynn Shotwell of the American Council on International Personnel seemed to agree employers would see happen in the next couple of weeks, as lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate negotiate a comprehensive overhaul of the immigration system.

An accord would, indeed, require Democrats and Republicans to bend further than might seem probable. One of the biggest hurdles: a provision by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas that would require the Department of Homeland Security and the top federal auditor to certify a 90-percent apprehension rate of illegal crossers at the border, as well as the installation of a biometric exit system at all air and sea ports.