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<p>PHOENIX (AP) - Both were once considered vulnerable but recently have found stronger footing in their Republican primary races.</p> <p>Now, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Gov. Jan Brewer will campaign together at six events in five communities on Friday and Saturday.</p>

In a rare show of bipartisan cooperation, Senate Republicans on Thursday night joined their Democratic colleagues to pass legislation boosting border security funding by $600 million, including money for 1,500 new border personnel, a pair of unmanned drones and operating bases. The Senate passed the Democrat-sponsored bill by unanimous consent and forwarded it to the House, which passed a similar $700 million proposal last week and could take up the Senate measure when members return for a special session next week. The Senate bill would not add to the deficit - a concern of many Republicans - but would be...

PHOENIX (AP) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain says he disagrees with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's statements that most people crossing the U.S. southern border illegally are smuggling drugs, but he thinks she is doing a good job of standing up for her state. Brewer has said the motivation of "a lot" of the illegal immigrants is to enter the United States to look for work, but that drug rings press them into duty as drug "mules."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday said he thinks that Congress can get immigration reform done by March 2011, if not by the end of this year. While speaking at a fundraising event for the Irish Lobby for Immigration reform in New York while on recess, Schumer praised his former negotiating partner Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), noting that Graham took his cues from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "While Lindsey Graham is a great partner and he loves our bill," Schumer said, he really said his mentor was McCain, according to IrishCentral.com. (snip) In 2007, McCain attempted to push through a...

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will host his first fundraiser for Arizona Sen. John McCain, facing a tough primary battle against former congressman J.D. Hayworth, at a McLean home later this month, advisers to the governor say. The June 14 fundraiser will be at the home of Bobbie Kilberg, president and chief executive of the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Kilberg, an adviser to McDonnell, is a member of McDonnell's new government reform commission. Other hosts include businessman Fred Malek, the commission chairman who has been under fire in recent weeks because of questions that have been raised about his past, former...

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Senator John McCain tells KGUN 9 News he sympathizes with the illegal immigrant students who put their residents in the United States on the line to show their support for the DREAM Act. The bill would grant students who are under the age of 16 and illegally in the country a path to citizenship if they meet certain requirements. The three undocumented students face deportation after a sit in demonstration inside McCain's Tucson office. The senator later met with the students to hear their side of the story. "Their situation is one that they're in jeopardy. They...

From ABC News... (snip) "McCain was supportive of the Dream Act in the past... we saw him as a champion in some ways, and we hope that comes back," said Abdollahi. Now the next paragraph is the money paragraph and I certainly hope Arizona voters are paying attention. McCain has been on all sides of this issue and now that he is facing reelection he is trying to convince voters that he will protect the borders. Let's see what he says when under pressure from the left. A McCain spokesperson told ABC News the senator will support the so-called "Dream...

"The last thing we want in this country is an individual like J.D. Hayworth in the Congress who is full of racism, will talk forever, and use every means to push his hate. So, in that sense, Senator McCain should beat him and beat him handily. Then, I think, turning back that type of person with the issue is being run against McCain — even with McCain on that side of the spectrum, will be a good sign for the future."

One-time moderate Arizona senator keeps step with the Tea Party and gets tough on illegal immigration. John Ladd points to the piles of empty water and Coke bottles, a yellow blanket and numerous other bits of debris abandoned on his cattle ranch in Cochise county, near Tombstone, Arizona. The sprawling estate, stretching 10 miles along the US-Mexico border, is a favoured route for those making the illegal, dangerous and often fatal, journey to what they hope is a bright new future. Ladd recalls waking up one morning in 2004 and finding about 900 Mexicans milling about on his land. "You...

For most lawmakers, DWI stands for “driving while intoxicated.” For Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), DWI stands for “driving while illegal.” In an appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Tuesday Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that illegal immigrants were intentionally causing car accidents along state freeways. (snip) "Look, our border is not secured. Our citizens are not safe," he said.

Law enforcement officials from the Arizona counties hardest hit by illegal immigration say they want U.S. troops to help secure the border, to prevent the deaths of more officers at the hands of criminals who enter the country illegally. “We’ve had numerous officers that have been killed by illegal immigrants in Arizona,” Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said Monday at a Capitol Hill news conference. “And that shouldn’t happen one time.” Babeu said the violence in Arizona has reached “epidemic proportions” and must be stopped. “In just one patrol area, we’ve had 64 pursuits -- failure to yield for an...

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, are believed to be on the cusp of introducing a new bill in the Senate on Comprehensive immigration reform. The Schumer/Graham initiative combines enforcement with earned legal status for immigrants who are out of status or came in illegally. Washington sources say they are ready to introduce the bill "any day now."

Anyone paying attention knows that John McCain has been a Big-Government Globalist Neocon (BGGN) for virtually his entire senatorial career. As with many BGGNs hiding out in the Republican Party, McCain likes to talk about smaller government, but his track record is littered with the promotion of one big government program after another. But, what else would one expect from a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)? Lately, however, McCain has outdone himself. He has introduced two bills in the US Senate that are about as Machiavellian as they could be. I am referring to S.3081, a bill...

PHOENIX (AP) — John McCain and Sarah Palin are scheduled to campaign together in Arizona next week for the first time since they conceded the presidential election in Phoenix in 2008. Palin and McCain will be at a rally and picnic in Tucson on March 26, followed the next day by a rally in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.

WASHINGTON -- Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Chuck Schumer of New York discussed major immigration reforms Thursday with President Barack Obama at a White House meeting. Graham, a Republican, waded back into a political minefield on a controversial issue that has prompted conservative activists across the nation to vilify him since he helped lead a failed Senate bid to overhaul the immigration system in 2007. Obama has faced more recent criticism from Latino lawmakers and advocacy groups accusing him of failing to deliver on a 2008 campaign promise to help the 12 million undocumented workers in the United...

Three years after efforts by Congress to reform the immigration system went down in flames, the issue is slowly re-emerging onto the national stage as two senators from the opposite sides of the political aisle work on crafting another bill. BY TRISH TURNER Three years after efforts by Congress to reform the immigration system went down in flames, the issue is slowly re-emerging on the national stage, as two senators from the opposite sides of the political aisle work on crafting another bill. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham,...

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain. Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker. The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past....

It is early evening on Capitol Hill, and I am sitting with Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican, who, along with John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, is trying to craft a new energy bill — one that could actually win 60 votes. What is interesting about Graham is that he has been willing — courageously in my view — to depart from the prevailing G.O.P. consensus that the only energy policy we need is “drill, baby, drill.” What brought you around, I ask? Graham’s short answer: politics, jobs and legacy. We start with politics. The Republican Party today has...

Arizona - John McCain has gone out of his way to earn the ire of conservatives and gun owners in his 20-plus years as a U.S. Senator from Arizona. Perhaps his crowning legislative achievement was so-called campaign finance reform, or the McCain-Feingold law. This law put the muzzle on organizations such as GOA, prohibiting any broadcast advertisements within 30 days of a primary election and 60 days of a general election that even mention the name of a candidate for federal office. Not surprisingly, there is frequently a flurry of activity in Congress in the months right before an election,...

The conversation ranged widely. Topics included job creation, helping Main Street and not Wall Street, overcoming congressional gridlock and reminding residents that he's still the same maverick politician he has been for nearly 24 years. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was in Flagstaff Tuesday on the heels of former U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth's announcement to run against McCain in the Republican primary in August. He sat down with the Arizona Daily Sun editorial board before giving remarks at the Coconino County Lincoln Day Dinner at the Radisson Woodlands Hotel. During the 75-minute question-and-answer session, he reiterated that his positions haven't...