McCain gets an earful on immigration in Arizona

cbs ^ | February 20, 2013, 4:02 AM

[Red Steel]

Arizona took center stage in the national immigration debate Tuesday as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano toured the state's border with Mexico and Sen. John McCain defended his proposed immigration overhaul to an angry crowd in suburban Phoenix.

The presence of the top officials is the latest sign that Arizona will play a prominent role in the immigration debate as President Obama looks to make it a signature issue of his second term.

Napolitano toured the border near Nogales with the highest-ranking official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the incoming chairman of the Senate's homeland security committee and an Arizona congressman. Napolitano, Arizona's former governor, said afterward that comprehensive immigration reform will strengthen the nation's border against criminals and other threats.

Also Tuesday, McCain hosted two town hall meetings in Arizona, during which he defended his immigration plan to upset residents concerned about border security. A bipartisan group of senators — including Arizona Republicans McCain and Jeff Flake — want assurances on border security as Congress weighs what could be the biggest changes to immigration law in nearly 30 years.

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"No state in this country has had more experience with enforcement-only immigration laws than Arizona," said Todd Landfried, executive director of Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform, which opposes the state's tough immigration laws.

[metalurgist]

It's too bad there weren’t enough people there with a desire to tar and feather these ass wipes that supposedly work for us.

[Terry Mross]

Things would not end well if I was in a townhall meeting and mccain called someone a jerk. Which he did. I’d be escorted out for calling him a “low life obama butt-kissing Palin-back-stabbing traitor who talked and made things worse for his fellow inmates”. (And for those who don’t believe that, look it up. There are many of his fellow inmates who hate his guts.)

There are other things I’d like to say but I’d get flamed. Many let him get by because he was a POW. I wonder just how far people would let him go because of that. If he was on tape saying “I support the president and hope he succeeds in destroying America”, there are people who would say “Well, he is a war hero and a POW.”