Immigration overhaul? After years of partisan fighting, immigration reform has suddenly vaulted to the top of the agenda in Washington.

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: NATIONAL

Greisa Martinez, an immigration reform activist from Dallas, Texas, thinks Washington may be ready to tackle the issue that has consumed her for much of her life.

"It's exciting for us just to think that people are very serious about it this time," says the 24-year-old, who was brought to the U.S. illegally from Mexico when she was a baby.

After years of fighting, progress in fixing what nearly everyone agrees is a broken immigration system might actually happen this year.

President Obama has made immigration reform a top priority. And a bipartisan group of senators has agreed on basic principles for a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration system, including a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. The plan would hinge on progress in securing America's borders--especially with Mexico--and ensuring that foreigners leave the country when their visas expire.

"Most Americans agree that it's time to fix a system that's been broken for way too long," Obama said in January in Las Vegas, Nevada, to an audience of about 2,000 high school students.

Obama says he wants immigration reform enacted this year, and the Senate plans to take it up in the spring. While many House Republicans remain opposed to granting any kind of permanent status to those here illegally, there are several reasons why immigration reform has a good shot right now. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say the political mood has changed since similar efforts collapsed in 2010 and in 2007 under President George W. Bush.

Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona and one of the negotiators, says he sees "a new appreciation" among Republicans of the need for an overhaul.

"Look at the last election," McCain said in a recent TV interview. "We are losing dramatically the Hispanic vote, which we think should be ours."

More than 70 percent of the 12.5 million Hispanics who voted in November's presidential election supported Obama, helping him win crucial swing states like Florida and Nevada. By 2030, there could be 40 million Hispanic voters, and many Republicans say the party must pay more attention to issues of importance to them.

New Realities

It's not just politics that's behind the new push for reform.

"We are at a moment when the underlying drivers of what has been persistent, growing illegal immigration for 40 years have shifted," says Doris Meissner of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. "There are some fundamental...