Members of the Nevada Immigrant Coalition gather in Las Vegas Tuesday to denounce Donald Trump’s agenda targeting immigrants. (Photo: Michael Lyle/Nevada Current)
When President Donald Trump first took office eight years ago on a campaign built around anti-immigrant rhetoric, many local organizers thought they could at least count on the state’s Democratic congressional delegation to push back on Trump’s efforts.
Members of the Nevada Immigrant Coalition, who gathered in Downtown Las Vegas Tuesday to condemn a slew of recent executive orders targeting immigration, now question if the Democratic federal delegation was still just as committed.
U.S. Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto were two of 12 Democrats who voted with Republicans on Monday in passing legislation making it easier to detain and deport immigrants arrested on nonviolent offices like shoplifting without a conviction. The state’s congressional Democrats voted for the bill in the House a week earlier.
“Eight years ago, we had people in Congress that we knew had our backs,” said Leo Murrieta, executive director of Make the Road Nevada. “We don’t have that now. We saw the Democrats in the House, we saw our Democratic senators vote to betray the immigrant communities.”
The immigrant coalition, composed of nearly 40 groups including Make the Road Nevada, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and the ACLU of Nevada, had been bracing for another round of action targeting immigrant communities once Trump was inaugurated.
His second presidential campaign, much like his first, leaned heavily on anti-immigrant rhetoric and, the orders he signed Monday chart the course for carrying out his campaign promise of mass deportation and broad detention.
Within hours of resuming office, he signed several orders, including ending humanitarian parole programs for nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, ending the CBP One app that allowed migrants to make appointments with asylum officers, and declaring a national emergency at the southern border.
Immigration raids are rumored to begin this week, with some news outlets reporting major blue state metro areas like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles could see mass deportation action in coming days.
Erika Castro, a spokesperson with the immigrant coalition, said people are already “living in fear because of what they’re hearing from the federal government right now.”
The first piece of legislation on immigration Trump is likely to sign is H.R. 29, the Laken Riley Act that was supported by all the Nevada Democrats in Congress. The bill would allow undocumented immigrants arrested or charged with non-violent crimes like shoplifting, theft and larceny to be detained even if there isn’t a conviction.
The legislation was named after Riley, a 22-year-old student who was murdered by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela who is undocumented.
Trump, “wants to come for birthright citizenship,” Murrieta said. “He shut down the border. He shut down legal immigration. He is coming hard for immigrants and senators Jacky Rosen and Cortez Masto did exactly what he wanted them to do. They did exactly what Trump wanted them to do to make it easier for him, to deport our families and to disrupt communities.”
After the bill passed the house Jan. 7, Nevada’s House Democrats defended their votes and called it “common sense anti-crime legislation” and a way to remove “predators from our communities.”
Democrats declined to answer Nevada Current’s questions on whether the measure would lead to immigrants merely accused of a crime to be deported or if it would aid Trump’s promise to carry out mass deportation
Immigration attorneys and organizers warned the legislation denies immigrants due process since it doesn’t require a conviction and would aid Trump’s plans to detain and deport more people.
After the House vote, the coalition urged both Nevada senators to reject the bill.
Rosen at the time said she supported the bill and believed “if someone commits a crime, they should be held accountable.”
Cortez Masto’s office initially told the Current she was reviewing the bill. She later posted on social media that she supported the bill because she “wants solutions that keep our communities safe.”
Murrieta said on Tuesday that the senators were “regurgitating MAGA talking points.”
“It’s shocking that as a former attorney general, she would vote against the presumption of innocence,” he said. “She would vote to change the very fabric of our justice system where people are presumed innocent.”
The bill passed the Senate 64-35.
Since there was an amendment to the bill, the House has to vote on the legislation again.
The coalition urged Nevada’s House delegation to reverse course.
“Our state is built and run on the contributions of immigrants from all backgrounds and walks of life,” Castro said. “Despite these contributions by immigrants in our state and across the country, Trump, his MAGA allies and our supposed champions in Congress are ready to scapegoat immigrants for problems caused by corporate greed and racism.