Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto is reaching out to the Latino community in Nevada, specifically the families living with the threat of deportation since the Supreme Court limited President Obama's executive order under the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program. She met with some of these families and immigration activists Wednesday.
"Your story is no different than mine. I just happen to be generations down from my grandfather, who came from Mexico," said Cortez Masto, who will be the first Latina in the U.S. Senate if she's elected.
Her grandfather crossed the Rio Grande to settle in the U.S. in the 1940s, a time when the emphasis was on assimilating and learning English, she said. She explained at the event, which alternated between two languages, that she doesn't speak Spanish fluently but can understand it.
Some of the children and teenagers who attended tearfully told about their fears that their families would be separated by deportation. She vowed to stand by them and work on immigration reform.
"I can't imagine a worse thing in the world as a child — the concern you have every day that your parents may be taken away from you," she said.
Cortez Masto promised to fight for comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate, pointing to the failure of her opponent, Rep. Joe Heck, to accomplish anything in the House while saying he supports reform. Heck also opposed Obama's executive orders, and voted last year against against expanding deportation relief to the parents of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals children.
The contrast here really couldn't be clearer. Heck is going to need a portion of the Latino vote to win, and with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket that was already going to be a challenge. So this is very smart politics for Cortez Masto in the race to keep Harry Reid's Senate seat blue.
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