7/6/2006 4:00:00 AM Meeting his constituents McCain calls for China to deal with North Korea
By JOANNA DODDER The Daily Courier
PRESCOTT U.S. Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he opposes two-party talks with North Korea after the communist nation set off seven missile tests Tuesday in an apparent attempt to get attention.
"This is a very dangerous situation," McCain told an audience of more than 400 people who gathered at the Prescott High School for his first town hall here in years.
The U.S. should stick with six-party talks and tell China to "rein in" North Korea if it's interested in peace, McCain said.
McCain talked about the war in Iraq, "out-of-control" federal spending, immigration reform and the Verde River Basin Partnership during the two-hour town hall.
"It certainly hasn't gone the way we wanted it to," McCain said of the Iraq war. "We made many mistakes." However, the U.S. is there, and if it leaves too soon, sectarian violence will spread throughout the Middle East, he warned.
McCain spent half the time fielding more than 30 audience questions and got an earful about a variety of issues, especially immigration.
He dispensed doses of comedic wit while also utilizing his skills at crowd control after one woman angry at the tide of illegal immigrants kept interrupting him and others.
"The system is broken," McCain agreed. "Our borders are not secure."
McCain briefly outlined the immigration reform plan that he and Sen. Edward Kennedy have put forth.
That plan includes a temporary guest worker program in which people from other countries could get tamper-proof visas to take U.S. jobs if no one in this country applied for the jobs after 60 days of advertising, McCain related.
When word spreads that immigrants can get jobs only with the tamper-proof visas, illegals will stop coming, McCain said. Those who then hire illegals will do it knowingly and the government will prosecute them, he said.
The estimated 11 million illegals in this country could pay a $3,000 fine to cover back taxes and criminal background checks, etc., then wait six years to apply for a green card and five years to apply for citizenship, McCain said.
When state representative candidate Noel Campbell said most people oppose citizenship for people who have broken the law, McCain said polls disagree.
The opportunity for citizenship is necessary or people will feel separated from society like the Muslims in France who recently rioted, McCain said.
McCain repeatedly denied accusations that he is proposing amnesty for illegal immigrants, asking people what they think the country should do with all the illegals already here. We can't keep the status quo and we logistically cannot deport them, he said.
"First, build the wall," Williamson Valley resident Lou Smith said.
McCain responded that he doesn't oppose suggestions to secure the Mexican border first, saying it would take a couple years to set up a guest worker program anyway.
One woman said her son lost his job to illegal immigrants when an employer cut wages in half, and she wondered how McCain's guest worker program would safeguard against that.
McCain said the employers would have to stick to the advertised wages, but the mother predicted that some employers simply would advertise jobs with wages so low that citizens wouldn't want them.
McCain said that's a valid point he's willing to work on with the public.
"We need to come together and solve this issue," he said.
