McCain ‘feeling good’ after cancer treatment
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says he’s feeling well in his first week of radiation treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer. In an interview Thursday with The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, the Republican stalwart says he wants to
“Immigration reform is one of the issues I’d like to see resolved.”
A week after his dramatic call for bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, Sen. John McCain says he wants to revive a longstanding attempt to reform the nation’s immigration system when he returns to Washington.
Before leaving Washington for treatment for brain cancer, McCain, R-Ariz., said he broached the idea with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The two collaborated on unsuccessful immigration legislation in 2013 as part of the bipartisan effort known as the “Gang of Eight.”
President Trump’s goal of building a U.S.-Mexico border wall might provide an opening for a bigger bargain on the issue, McCain said.
“Immigration reform is one of the issues I’d like to see resolved,” McCain told The Ari
zona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, in an interview Thursday. “I’ve got to talk to him (Schumer) about when would be the best time. I think there are all kinds of deals to be made out there. I really do.”
His goal remains a long shot in the Trump era, with Senate Majority leader Mitch McCon- nell, R-Ky., running the Senate and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., leading the House of Representatives.
Even at times when the White House was friendly to the idea, success on the issue has proved elusive for McCain, who has worked on comprehensive immigration reform bills for more than 10 years. But while former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama wanted immigration reform, Trump has appeared hostile to any approach that would balance border-security investments with a pathway for citizenship for undocumented immigrants without legal papers who have settled in the United States.
McCain’s remarks came a day after Trump backed a Senate bill from Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, RGa., that proposes sharp cuts to legal immigration.
But the six-term McCain, who turns 81 on Aug. 29, also is in a more reflective place in his long Senate career as he faces a serious health challenge and undergoes chemotherapy for brain cancer.
“We’ll know in a few weeks,” McCain said of the cancer. “I hate to use the word ‘beat it,’ because it’s not a matter of beating. You either get cured or you don’t get cured.”