Senate hears problems, differs on answers to border detention crisis
WASHINGTON - With border apprehensions at their highest level in a decade, all sides at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing agreed that the situation at immigrant detention facilities has reached crisis levels. But potential solutions remained elusive.
Advocates vow Supreme Court ruling not last word on border wall funds
WASHINGTON - Immigration advocates are vowing to continue to fight the use of Defense Department funds for construction of a border wall, after the Supreme Court late Friday lifted lower courts' injunction on the funds transfer.
Lawmakers spar over family separations, detention center conditions
WASHINGTON - A House panel grilled administration officials over migrant family separations and conditions at border detention facilities, but the hearing produced more partisan sparks than answers - although both sides agreed that the situation at the border has reached crisis levels.
VA touts ‘transformation,’ five years after Phoenix hospital scandal
WASHINGTON - Five years after the Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix made national headlines for falsifying records about patient wait times, agency officials told House lawmakers that the system has seen a "tremendous transformation," with wait-times on par with or better than private practice.
Racist? House vote puts members on record over Trump ‘go home’ tweets
WASHINGTON - The House on a mostly party line vote condemned President Donald Trump's "racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred" in response to the president's tweets that progressive congresswomen should "go back" to the countries they originally came from.
Making America grill again: Cost of cookouts little changed this year
WASHINGTON - The American Farm Bureau said the cost of a traditional Fourth of July cookout for 10 rose less than 1 percent from last year to just is just $5.28 per person this year, according to its annual market survey. And the cost is even lower in Arizona, the farm bureau in the state says.
Supreme Court rejects – for now – citizenship question on 2020 Census
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court handed a temporary victory to opponents of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, saying the government will have to go back and make a better case in court if it wants to include the question that critics say will suppress minority participation.
Arizona National Guard chief defends role of troops at border
WASHINGTON - The head of the Arizona National Guard defended the use of military troops on the border, telling a House subcommittee that their support puts more Border Patrol officers on the front lines - what one official called "badges back to the border."
Trump’s pledge to quickly deport ‘millions’ earns praise, provokes alarm
PHOENIX – Trump pledges to deport ‘millions’ of undocumented immigrants President Donald Trump pledged to have federal authorities remove millions of undocumented immigrants next week, setting off a flurry of warnings from immigration advocates to prepare families for possible deportation.
Ducey, at White House, touts benefits of new occupational licensing law
WASHINGTON - Gov. Doug Ducey touted Arizona's first-in-the-nation universal licensing recognition law at the White House Thursday to a receptive audience of governors and the president, who were there to talk about their ideas to improve workforce mobility.
Pima official defends clean-water rule that farmers blast as burdensome
WASHINGTON - Both sides at a Senate hearing on the Waters of the U.S. rule agreed they want clean water, but a Pima County official said a Trump plan would open the door to pollution while farm groups said an Obama-era rule was too burdensome and confusing to be effective.
