Specific Policy Positions
Border security In the interest of national security, he first wants to secure the nation's borders, ports, and other entry points, and to require border-state governors to certify that their borders are secure. He then would pursue other reforms, such as allowing illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship. McCain has called for deploying additional personnel, physical and high-tech barriers, and surveillance equipment on the borders and for more-effective screening of cargo entering the country.
Legalization/path to citizenship Has called for the immediate roundup and deportation of the estimated 2 million illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds. He would allow the remaining 10 million illegal immigrants to earn citizenship if they pay a "substantial" fine and back taxes, learn English, and "get to the back of the [citizenship] line behind everybody else" with legal status.
Legal immigration Voted for comprehensive bills that would have increased legal immigration and would have revised the system of allocating green cards to give priority to immigrants' education and job skills over family ties.
Guest-worker program Voted for comprehensive bills that would have created an expanded program using a computer registry to match foreign workers with businesses that need temporary help. A new program remains high on his agenda.
Employer sanctions Would require employers to use a new electronic employment verification system to certify that all employees are legal. Workers would need "tamper-proof, biometric" identification cards. Employers who knowingly hire illegal workers would "be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law
Key Advisers
For McCain, immigration is as much a matter of politics as policy. So it's little wonder that political guru and D.C. lobbyist Charles Black strategizes with him about how to finesse this issue. McCain also gets immigration advice from close friend Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Legislative Director Ann Begeman, who splits her time between his Senate office and the campaign. To reach out to Hispanic voters and the Hispanic media, McCain relies on Ana Navarro, a Miami-based consultant who co-chairs his National Hispanic Advisory Board and who has counseled him on the issue for years.
Record
Comprehensive approach: Co-authored the 2005 McCain-Kennedy bill that formed the basis for 2007 legislation to provide illegal immigrants with a path to citizenship, create a new guest-worker program, toughen employment verification, change the system for admitting legal immigrants, and increase border security and worksite enforcement.
DREAM Act: In 2005 and 2007, co-sponsored the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act to allow earned citizenship for college students and military members who were brought into this country illegally as children. He missed October's vote to attach the measure to a defense bill.
Border fence: Voted for the Secure Fence Act in 2006 to beef up physical and high-tech barriers, including 700 miles of fencing, along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Immigration law enforcement: After the June 2007 collapse of the Senate immigration reform effort, co-sponsored tough enforcement-only bills introduced by conservative Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, and co-sponsored a pair of enforcement-only amendments that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., offered to the Homeland Security spending bill.
Key Interest Groups
U.S. Chamber of Commerce: The influential business group was a leading backer of the 2005 and 2007 comprehensive bills that McCain supported, and it saw him as employers' chief advocate in negotiations between enforcement hard-liners and immigrants' advocates.
National Council of La Raza: Although the Latino advocacy group was a close working partner of McCain's in the immigration battles of the past few years, it now questions whether he will have the political maneuvering room to achieve comprehensive reforms.
Service Employees International Union: This powerful union's support for the 2005 and 2007 bills and their guest-worker programs gave McCain a pivotal labor ally, but his tougher stance has soured the union on him.
NumbersUSA: This and other hard-line conservative organizations led the grassroots revolt that helped kill last year's bill. Although they now like his enforcement and border-security views, they consider McCain's other positions "abysmal."
This article appeared in the Saturday, June 28, 2008 edition of National Journal.
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