POLITICO: Sen. John McCain says President Barack Obama is motivated by “political calculations” in supporting the repeal of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.
“In order for the president of the United States to be reelected, he has to have very solid support amongst the Hispanic community,” the Arizona Republican told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren, hours after the Supreme Court struck down three provisions of the law. “I cannot believe that political calculations are not a major part of this. Otherwise, he would have proposed comprehensive immigration reform back in 2009 when he was first president of the United States.”
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled to uphold what is widely known as the “show me your papers” provision of SB 1070, which mandates that police officers check the documents of an individual who has been stopped for questioning if there is reason to believe that they are in the country illegally.
Describing his state as the place where plenty of drugs and illegal immigrants enter the country through the border, McCain also asserted that the administration’s stance on the state’s immigration law is “worse than ironic.”
“The irony here is that the reason why Arizona enacted SB 1070 is because of our immense frustration over the federal government’s either unable or unwilling to secure our borders,” the senator said. “But so we were frustrated; passed the law. Now the Supreme Court says that we can’t enforce our borders, and at the same time, obviously, the federal government won’t.”
Speaking out in favor of SB 1070, the president’s 2008 opponent also blasted the administration for failing to enact a comprehensive immigration policy when it had been such a prominent part of Obama’s platform as a presidential candidate.
“The president was running in 2008, then-Sen. Obama promised to bring up comprehensive immigration reform,” he said. “For two years the president had 60 votes in the Senate and overwhelming majorities in the House. No legislative proposal came from the president of the United States on comprehensive immigration reform.”
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