McCain: Backing immigration reform sends the right message Support would show state has moved past old controversies Speaking Monday at an Arizona Chamber of Commerce roundtable meeting, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., urged the business community to remind the state’s Republican U.S. House members how important immigration reform is to the economy. Susan Walsh By Dan Nowicki The Republic | azcentral Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:20 AM Arizona’s Capitol Hill delegation could send an “important” message that the state has moved past immigration controversies by unanimously backing a comprehensive border-reform package, Sen. John McCain said Monday. Speaking at an Arizona Chamber of Commerce roundtable meeting, McCain, R-Ariz., sought to rally allies in the business community to get involved and “in a respectful fashion” emphasize to the state’s Republican U.S. House members how important immigration reform is to the economy. With Congress currently home from Washington on a five-week break, the time to make the case for immigration reform is now, he said. “We need to get this issue done, and behind us,” McCain said. “And especially, I might say, in the state of Arizona, which has faced so much controversy and so much publicity, that it would be great if we saw the entire Arizona delegation support this comprehensive immigration reform.” McCain, the primary Republican negotiator of a sweeping bipartisan immigration system overhaul that the Senate passed in late June, met with several groups Monday as part of a one-man push to motivate Arizona business and religious leaders to help persuade the state’s U.S. House delegation to support the effort, which would include a pathway to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already settled in the country as well as a massive border-security investment, workplace-enforcement measures and new visa programs for foreign workers. He also discussedimmigration in separate sessions with the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a group of clergy and evangelical leaders from the Arizona Interfaith Network/Valley Interfaith Project and a group of Valley Hispanic civic leaders, his office said. Today, McCain plans to host a Tucson town-hall-style event and participate in more meetings with southern Arizona business leaders. Immigration reform’s outlook in the GOP-controlled House is uncertain. The Senate measure that McCain helped write has been deemed dead-on-arrival, and House Republican leaders have said they intend to act on immigration reform in their own way. Republican Reps. Trent Franks, Paul Gosar, Matt Salmon and David Schweikert of Arizona are among those who have signaled opposition to the Senate legislation, but McCain believes some House Republicans may be inclined to embrace other bills that don’t go as far. The goal, he said, is to get to a joint House-Senate conference committee that can come up with a compromise bill that both chambers can support and President Barack Obama would sign. “If we don’t get it done this fall, the chances of getting it done next year are much diminished,” McCain said at the chamber roundtable. “I’m not saying we can’t. We want to deal with the House of Representatives. If they pass piecemeal legislation, fine. However they want to do it.” McCain said he was proud to represent Arizona, which caused a national furor in 2010 when it passed the tough state immigration-enforcement law known as Senate Bill 1070, but said he would “feel it an even greater honor if we supported this comprehensive immigration reform and took the lead in doing so.” Arizona’s other Republican senator, Jeff Flake, also was part of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” that produced the Senate-passed immigration bill. After the Arizona Chamber of Commerce appearance, McCain elaborated on the goal of unanimous support for reform by Arizona’s delegation. “I don’t know whether the entire delegation will agree or not,” McCain told the media. “I think there are some amongst our Republican delegation who are considering it. I think there are some in our delegation who would support certain portions of immigration reform. But I think a lot of it is going to be affected to some degree by their interaction with their constituents during this August recess.”
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:00:00 +0000
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