While lawmakers are in serious talks about immigration reform for the first time in years, the public may not want to hold its breath, experts said.

"We may not get an immigration bill this year. That is a very real possibility," Republican Strategist Ford O'Connell told Xinhua.

Indeed, while Republicans want to recruit Hispanics and view immigration reform as a springboard to doing so, they are under no pressure to pass a bill by the 2014 mid-term elections. Historical trends portend a low turnout among Latinos - a group that most supports an immigration overhaul - and that supporting such a bill could even hurt rank-and-file Republicans with their conservative base.

"Getting it done or not done before the 2014 elections will have almost zero bearing on the mid-term elections," O'Connell said.

But that doesn't mean Democrats won't try to make an issue out of immigration in 2014 elections, he added.

However, Republican lawmakers do not want to see a 2016 win by probable presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, which means they need to tackle the immigration issue before then.

"There's a cadre of GOP lawmakers who realize that they have to get immigration reform done, but they don't have to do it until the day before Election Day 2016," O'Connell said.

With Republicans expecting to gain more Senate seats, the U.S. could see a renewed push just after the November 2014 mid terms, O 'Connell said.

In an article released last month, the National Journal noted that the House's piecemeal approach, instead of the Senate's recently passed overhaul, will just drag out the debate.

Currently, Congress is deliberating before its August recess. Once lawmakers come back to Washington in fall, they will be busy wrangling with the White House over the budget.

House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday dodged questions on CBS' " Face the Nation", refusing to answer whether he would support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who have lived in the U. S. for some time.

Latinos, who comprise a major voting block in the United States, favor immigration reform, and voted overwhelmingly in favor of Democrats in last year's presidential election.

With 50,000 Hispanics reaching voting age every month, analysts say Republicans can no longer rely solely on white voters to win elections, according to the recent U.S. census.

After losing the presidential race to Democrats last November, U.S. Republicans have set out to shift their image from what some view as a party of old, white men to one more in tune with an increasingly multi-cultural America.

While soul searching within the party has occurred for some time, Republicans were jolted after they lost 71 percent of the Latino vote and 55 percent of women voters in November's presidential election. Endi

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