TDs are to travel to Washington next week to lobby Congress to back special immigration measures for thousands of Irish living illegally in the United States.
The Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee delegation will be led by its chairman, Fianna Fáil's Michael Woods, along with TDs Liz O'Donnell (Progressive Democrats), Michael D Higgins (Labour) and Bernard Allen (Fine Gael).
Mr Allen said the group would seek to persuade US lawmakers of the merits of the Kennedy/McCain Bill, which, if passed, would offer tens of thousands of illegal immigrants a chance of getting a three-year residency permit.
The final decisions, warned Labour's Mr Higgins, will be taken in the next eight weeks: "The business on this is going to be sorted out before Easter."
The delegation will meet the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, congressman Peter King, next Wednesday, followed by a meeting with senator Chuck Hagel.
On Thursday next, the group will meet a US State Department official, Mike Gallagher, and congressman Jim Walsh, along with Sheila Gleeson of the Coalition of Irish Immigration Centres.
The Irish Embassy in Washington is currently finalising other meetings, though many senators and congressmen will be back in their constituencies because Congress is in recess.
Meanwhile, senator Hilary Clinton said Jesus Christ would probably be arrested for helping the poor if Republican-supported proposals to counter illegal immigration were accepted. The declaration is the senator's toughest statement yet on the proposed Sensenbrenner Bill, which would make both illegal immigration and assisting illegal immigrants felony crimes.
"It is certainly not in my understanding of the Scriptures because this Bill would literally criminalise the Good Samaritan or probably even Jesus himself," she added.
Senator Clinton was surrounded by Irish, Mexican and other immigrant groups as she spoke to the media at her Manhattan headquarters.
"One thing we are absolutely united on is our opposition to the Bill that came out of the House, the so-called Sensenbrenner Bill, which would literally criminalise not only every undocumented immigrant in the country, but also every person who assisted, reached out to or otherwise responded in a humanitarian way to immigrants," she said.