McCain: Immigration reform “top priority” for first 100 days
June 28th, 2008 1:44 PM Eastern
by Mosheh Oinounou
embeds.blogs.foxnews.com
WASHINGTON, DC — Boldly declaring that he will make comprehensive immigration reform his “top priority,” during his first 100 days in office, Sen. John McCain today assured Latino leaders that they will have an ally in the White House.
“It will be my top priority yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” McCain told the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Saturday. “Immigration reform will be my top priority because we have the obligation to address a federal issue from a federal standpoint. I will reach across the aisle again and work in a bipartisan fashion. We will resolve the immigration issue in America and we will secure our borders.”
McCain made the statement in response to a question about his Oval Office priorities after mainly focusing on the economy during his opening remarks to the group. He addressed NALEO this morning just before his Democratic rival spoke, noting at the top of his remarks that he was hoping the conference could have served as a forum for his joint-town hall proposal.
While McCain mostly avoided attacks on Obama—not even taking his usual shot at the Democrat’s support for a labor-backed amendment that hurt last year’s Senate immigration effort—the Illinois Senator exercised no such restraint.
Instead, McCain noted the battle he had with his own party during the failed comprehensive immigration reform effort.
“We tried, I reached across the aisle..and we worked in bipartisan fashion. And we were defeated and by the way it wasn’t very popular–let’s have some straight talk–with some in my party and so I did that and worked together so we could carry out a federal responsibility,” he said. “We have to secure our borders. That’s the message. But we also must proceed with a temporary worker program.”
The Arizona Senator’s remarks were also interrupted four times by hecklers–three members of the anti-war group Code Pink–and once by a man with a media credential seated with the press. McCain left off the last portion of his prepared remarks after the third interruption and went straight into questions from NALEO officials.
Most NALEO attendees applauded McCain after each interruption and the GOPer received cheers after his response to the first heckler as she was escorted out.
“I am sure you have seen the polls recently about trust and confidence in government and the frustration that Americans feel about us,” he said, deviating from his prepared remarks. “The one thing Americans want us to stop doing is yelling at each other.”
UPDATE: 1:30PM ET—McCain Camp responds to Obama NALEO attack:
“It’s quite audacious for Barack Obama to question John McCain’s commitment to immigration reform when it was Obama himself who worked to kill the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform compromise last year. Barack Obama voted for five ‘poison pill’ amendments designed by special interests to kill the immigration reform deal. These efforts were strongly opposed by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the Democrat who led the fight for immigration reform, because he understood they would have the effect of ending the bipartisan work toward immigration reform,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers. “The reality is that Barack Obama has never reached across the aisle to lead in a bipartisan fashion on an issue of major importance to the American people when his own political interests were at risk. The American people are tired of typical politicians like Barack Obama. While John McCain was reaching across the aisle to solve the tough problem of immigration reform, Barack Obama was working for politics as usual in Washington.” |
