Republicans are planning legislation for 2015 on toughening the U.S.-Mexican border as a response to President Barack Obama's easing of immigration regulation by stopping the deportations of millions of undocumented residents.

The move will likely begin early next year and could bring needed repairs to parts of U.S. immigration law, according to House Republican leadership aides. If such legislation appears, it will end a year and a half of inactivity on the issue, as its last address was in a Senate bill supported by the president, but killed in the House.

"I think there is the realization ... that this issue is not going away," Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart said. Diaz-Balart has previously written laborious broad immigration legislation.

The effort will likely be overseen by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, leadership aides said. McCaul has pushed legislation imposing tough standards on border control in the past. The hope is that following the rejection of the Senate's work in the House in 2013, if a 2015 bill appears, it would be better if the House took the lead in creating the legislation.

The citizenship option for millions of undocumented immigrants in the 2013 Senate bill sparked extreme division among the opposition.

"I want it to start in the House," said Sen. John McCain, a former Republican presidential candidate who is a leading immigration reform proponent. McCain said establishing an online system to check immigration status on employees, expanding visa allocations for high-tech foreign citizens and overall border security improvements will be the issues addressed first as the first two aspects are important to U.S. businesses.

However, House Republican aides were unclear on what bills might surface apart from better border security.

Now that Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2006, there is hope that the GOP will gain more ground on immigration reform debate. The party may try and do this and improve public opinion among Hispanic-American voters if they hope to secure the White House in the 2016 election.