Daily Border Bulletin: McCain, “guardedly optimistic” on a pathway agreement, is time running out for Labor and Business, more

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Sen. McCain, “guardedly optimistic” on a pathway agreement: Three Republican senators working to craft immigration legislation in the gang of eight downplayed a report that they had reached an agreement on a pathway to legal status. The Chicago Tribune reported on Monday that the eight senators “have privately agreed on the most contentious part of the draft: how to give legal status to the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants.” While the senators broadly said that giving legal status to the country’s undocumented immigrants remained a top priority as laid out in their proposal unveiled earlier in the year, they denied any details had been finalized

Time is running out for Labor and Business: For months, business and labor leaders have been negotiating over a crucial aspect of immigration reform — how to handle future flows of lesser-skilled workers. But the next few weeks may determine whether the two sides can reach an agreement that could prove crucial to the greater effort to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. Both sides have already agreed to a common set of principles, including the creation of a new visa for lesser-skilled workers who come to the U.S. for year-round work. At present, no visa category provides for that type of immigrant worker.

GOP’s Steve Pearce and The Latino Vote: Rep. Steve Pearce is the rarest of Republican Party officeholders, a very conservative Anglo who keeps winning elections from a predominantly Latino electorate. As the national GOP seeks to improve its dismal standing with Hispanic voters, the 65-year-old former oil man has some advice. “You just have to show up, all the time, everywhere,” he said, during a recent barnstorm tour of his district, which sprawls across the southern half of this border state. “Most Republicans don’t bother. I do. I bother.