Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said President Obama assured her in a meeting in the Oval Office Thursday that he would send White House staff to her state to talk with Arizona and local officials about efforts to secure the border with Mexico. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the Republican governor said her talk with the president was cordial, despite their disagreement over the widely criticized state law she signed in April giving police greater powers to enforce immigration rules. She said that Obama declined to discuss whether the Justice Department plans to file a lawsuit to block the law before it takes effect next month. But she called her meeting with the president a victory, saying she 'has more today than I had yesterday,' referring to the commitment that White House staff will visit Arizona. The meeting came as Brewer responded to news reports that she had embellished the circumstances of her father's death, saying erroneously that he had died fighting the Nazis. In fact, he died of illness in California in 1955. In a statement, Brewer said that 'my father, Wilford Drinkwine, moved our family before I was born from Minnesota to Nevada to work at the Hawthorne Ammunition Depot in Western Nevada at the outset of World War II. He passed away when I was 11 years old. His death came after a long and painful battle with lung disease, contracted following years of exposure to hazardous chemicals and toxic fumes while working as a civil servant at the base.' Thursday's meeting was the culmination of weeks of public disagreement between Brewer and Obama about the intent and the impact of the new Arizona law. The White House said in a statement that the meeting went well and that Obama reiterated his concerns with the law, including that a patchwork of different state immigration regulations would complicate the federal government's role in setting and enforcing immigration policy. The statement said Obama would like Brewer to work with him to help pass comprehensive changes to the immigration system that would provide a path to citizenship for those already in the country illegally. In a briefing to reporters, press secretary Robert Gibbs said that, in particular, the president hoped Brewer would help persuade Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to support broad immigration legislation as he did several times earlier this decade. 'I doubt we are going to get comprehensive immigration reform if we don't have John McCain doing what he did during those years,' Gibbs said. But as she was leaving the White House, Brewer said the border must 'be secured' before she could partner with Obama on broad immigration legislation. 