Yesterday, President Obama held an oval office meeting with Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona. The agenda of the meeting was immigration and in particular, the controversial new anti-immigration measure that Brewer signed into law earlier this spring.
Since that time, the issue of immigration reform has catapulted once again to the top of the public policy debate. The White House issued a statement describing the event as a “good meeting” where the two discussed the “President’s comprehensive plan to secure the Southwest border and the unprecedented resources his Administration has devoted to that effort.”
That effort includes the previously announced plan by the President to send an additional 1,200 National Guard troops to the border region.
Obama has been a critic of the Arizona act since it was signed. He has expressed concerns over the potential for racial profiling of Latinos in the state and his Justice Department is said to preparing a suit in federal court against the law which goes into effect at the end of July.
For her part, Brewer focused her remarks on border security issues at the same time the president urged her to reach out to Arizona’s senior US Senator, John McCain, to resume his role as a lead advocate on Capitol Hill for comprehensive immigration reform.
White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs said, “I doubt we are going to get comprehensive immigration reform if we don’t have John McCain doing what he did during those years.”
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