With the Senate ready to cast the first floor votes on a landmark immigration bill, House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday he thinks there's a good chance the legislation can be signed into law "by the end of the year."

House members writing a bipartisan immigration bill said Thursday they had patched over a dispute that threatened their efforts.

A key House committee chairman on Wednesday sharply criticized a wide-ranging immigration bill just passed by a Senate committee.

Officials say leading senators trying to resolve a key issue on immigration legislation have agreed to a compromise covering expansion of a high-tech visa program.

More than two dozen conservative leaders have signed on to a statement supporting action to overhaul the nation's immigration laws and calling legislation pending in the Senate an "important starting point."

A bipartisan immigration bill pending in the Senate would strengthen the Social Security trust fund by adding millions of workers to tax rolls, and provide a boost to the overall economy, according to an analysis Wednesday by the Social Security Administration.

A bipartisan Senate immigration bill would cost the government a net $6.3 trillion over the next 50 years to provide benefits for millions of people now living in the U.S. illegally.

Four Democratic and four Republican senators formally unveiled a sweeping immigration bill Thursday at a news conference attended by traditional opponents from big business and labor, conservative groups and liberal ones.