US Border Patrol agent Manny Villalobos (c.) patrols with other agents along the international border between Mexico and the US near San Diego, March 26, 2013. Mike Blake/Reuters
Migrants climb off a train in Ixtepec, Mexico, during their journey toward the US-Mexico border April 29, 2013. Migrants crossing Mexico to get to the US have increasingly become targets of criminal gangs who kidnap them to obtain ransom money. Eduardo Verdugo/AP
Artist Gretchen Baer paints on a fence marking the US border in Naco, Mexico, April 17, 2013. As the US pushes for tighter security along the Mexico border as part of an immigration overhaul, residents on either side of the frontier in this corner of southeast Arizona are taking the unusual step of working to strengthen neighborly ties. Tim Gaynor/Reuters
Undocumented students enrolled at UCLA attend a graduation ceremony for 'DREAMers,' or DREAM Act students, at a church near the campus on June 15, 2012. Undocumented youths who came to the United States as children reacted with joy to an Obama administration rule change that could spare them deportation, although critics derided it as 'amnesty.' Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters
Day laborers – illegal immigrants who could be eligible for amnesty under discussion in Congress – gather at the Home Depot in Santa Ana, Calif., to wait for job offers in construction and yardwork. Melanie Stetson Freeman / Staff
Maria Cobarrubias, an immigration lawyer in Santa Ana, Calif, is one of seven siblings born in the United States to illegal immigrants who were legalized in the 1986 amnesty. Typical of families affected by amnesty, the children were upwardly mobile – six of the seven have college degrees. Melanie Stetson Freeman / Staff
Angelica Dimas, a school custodian in Santa Ana, Calif., came illegally to the US to work when she was 17 and was able to become naturalized within five years because of the 1986 amnesty. Melanie Stetson Freeman / Staff
People are taken into custody by the US Border Patrol near Falfurrias, Texas, March 29, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicenter for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas.
Illegal immigrants prepare to enter a bus after being processed at Tucson Sector US Border Patrol Headquarters Aug. 9, 2012, in Tucson, Ariz. New strategies being implemented by the US government, including the halting of one-way flights back to the interior cities in Mexico, are in place to streamline processing and expedite a return to Mexico. Ross D. Franklin/AP
A man receives a haircut at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa, Mexico, April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing, and medical care to people planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the US. Many migrants spend a few days in a 'stash house,' such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Eric Thayer/Reuters
A Central American migrant sleeps on top of a freight train to travel to north Mexico to reach and cross the US border, in Arriaga in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, Jan. 10, 2012. Hundreds of thousands of migrants, mostly Central Americans, risk robbery, death from fast-moving freight trains, or dehydration in the desert while trying to reach the US illegally. Jorge Luis Plata/Reuters
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer leaves a news conference responding to the US Supreme Court decision at the Arizona Capitol Monday, June 25, 2012, in Phoenix. The Supreme Court struck down key provisions of Arizona’s tough law on immigration but said a much-debated portion on checking the status of suspected illegal immigrants could go forward. Ross D. Franklin/AP
Andy Hernandez, carrying a Mexican flag, and Allison Culver, carrying an American flag, argue over SB1070 outside the State Capitol Building in Phoenix June 25, 2012. Patrick Breen/Arizona Republic/AP
US Border Patrol agent Daniel Serrato drives along the border fence in Columbus, N.M., near Palomas, Mexico. Mr. Sarrento's office is responsible for patrolling 47 miles of the border fence. Tony Avelar/Staff
Illegal immigrants Sonia Limas (l.) and her pregnant daughter, Gloriely Lopez, are reflected in a mirror at their home, Sept. 6, 2012, in Alamo, Texas. When health-care reform has been fully implemented, illegal immigrants will make up the nation’s second-largest population of uninsured, or about 25 percent. Eric GayAP
Cotton farmer Teofilo Flores drives his truck along the US-Mexico border fence that passes through his property in Brownsville, Texas, Sept. 6, 2012. The fence along this section of the border divided people from swaths of their own land, but also struck many as an offensive gesture in this bicultural, bilingual region. Eric Gay/AP
Supporters of granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants cheer in Springfield, Ill., after a committee hearing at the Capitol on Jan. 7, 2013. As Illinois becomes the fourth and most populous state to issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, concerns persist concerning whether the program will have enough safeguards to avoid identity fraud and other pitfalls experienced by the three other states with similar laws. Seth Perlman/AP
Petra Falcon, executive director of Promise Arizona, wipes her forehead as Arizona politicians and protesters react to the US Supreme Court decision regarding SB1070. The court struck down key provisions of the Arizona law June 25, 2012, but said that the state could proceed with checking the residency status of suspected illegal immigrants. Ross D. Franklin/AP
Morning commuters fill the platform as they exit a train in New York's Times Square subway station, March 14, 2013. An historic decline in the number of US whites and the fast growth of Latinos are blurring traditional black-white color lines, testing the limits of civil rights laws and reshaping political alliances. The demographic shift is now a potent backdrop to an immigration overhaul bill being debated in Congress. Richard Drew/AP
Immigration reform may not just be about policy or political sense, it may be about cutting deficits, too – a finding that could shift momentum at a critical point in the Senate's immigration debate.
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