[JURIST] US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website] Sunday urged Congress to work on passing an immigration bill [JURIST news archive] this year, despite a current lack of agreement [JURIST report]. Specter told CNN's Late Edition that "there has to be an agreement between Democrats and Republicans on a list of amendments. And it would be a thorough conference, candidly, with the House, but we were able to work through the [renewal of the] Patriot Act although there were big disagreements."

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) [official website] will seek passage of an immigration bill by Memorial Day [press release] by pushing the Senate version of the legislation, S 2454 [summary], which stalled despite a compromise agreement [PDF summary]. The US House of Representatives passed [JURIST report] a strict and highly-controversial border security bill [HR 4437 summary] last year. AP has more.