Thursday, December 28, 2017

NEW: Rep. McSally Meets At White House To Discuss Immigration-Related Issues

Arizona Rep. Martha McSally (R-CD2) headed to the White House last week to discuss immigration-related issues. It was the 2nd time in five weeks that she joined other Republican lawmakers to meet with President Donald Trump.

Politico reported yesterday that the meeting was primarily to discuss a DACA fix for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. However, indications are that the meeting agenda was more broad and included topics near and dear to both the President's and Republicans' hearts, such as border security, so-called chain migration and interior enforcement.

Of course, McSally's district reaches the U.S.-Mexico border and she has frequently spoken about these issues. Last month, she introduced a bill to drastically reduce the number of immigrants who are granted diversity visas.

After leading a September letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan urging him to take up the DACA issue because "it would be wrong to go back on our word and subject these individuals to deportation" after they had provided personal information and biometrics to the federal government, the Speaker added her to "an informal group of Republican members to help address border security and identify solutions for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program." It was apparently that group that met with the President on the 19th.

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has also been actively involved in efforts to reach some sort of agreement on helping Dreamers remain in the country after the President's rescission of President Obama's DACA executive order becomes effective in March. Flake indicated he received a promise from the White House to be involved in the DACA negotiations, in return for his recent vote in favor of the tax bill.

However, it does not appear that Flake and McSally are working together on the DACA issue.  McSally has expressed interest in replacing the retiring Flake in the Senate. 

She also went to the White House on November 16, as part of a group of Republican House members meeting with the President about an earlier version of the tax bill.

Arizona's Politics has reached out to McSally's office and expects the Congresswoman to respond after the first of the year.

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