Buried deep in a recent Associated Press story about the prospects of another economic stimulus package is this intriguing admission by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Illegal immigrants may never earn a path to U.S. citizenship.

Pelosi said Congress would have to tackle the politically sticky job of overhauling immigration laws in the new Congress, after a bipartisan measure collapsed last year.

The estimated 12 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally "are part of the U.S. economy. We cannot send them all home, and we cannot send them all to jail, so we have to address it," Pelosi said.

Any solution would have to be bipartisan, she said, so it may require sacrificing some of Democrats' past priorities, such as giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

"Maybe there never is a path to citizenship if you came here illegally," Pelosi said. "I would hope that there could be, but maybe there isn't."

If you would like to contact Ms. Pelosi regarding her statement, please follow the link below.