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Advocates Protest Jeff Sessions Visit to Las Vegas, Call Out Deportation Policies

by Americas's Voice on

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke in Las Vegas today, in a short speech that was as usual full of comments demonizing immigrants and misrepresenting so-called “sanctuary cities”.  He said that Clark County, Nevada – which encompasses Las Vegas – needed further investigation as to whether it can be considered a sanctuary jurisdiction. Clark County was among ten jurisdictions that received letters from Sessions’ Department of Justice this year, demanding that the county comply with vague federal requirements to cooperate with ICE.

But the problem is with Jeff Sessions, the federal government, and the Trump Administration, not Clark County: Las Vegas and other cities and counties like it around the country are already compliant with the current federal definition of ICE cooperation. And what Sessions and Trump want cities to do – hold immigrants who have committed no crimes until ICE can pick them up – has repeatedly been found unconstitutional and would make cities less safe.

Advocates today made it clear that Sessions was not welcome in Las Vegas, with activists from PLAN Nevada, For Our Future Nevada, and the Culinary Union demonstrating outside of where Sessions was speaking. Below are some of their tweets and videos:

Meanwhile, Yvanna Cancela, a former Nevada organizer turned state senator, called out Sessions over Twitter for speaking in front of law enforcement officials without being honest about how he wants to coerce them into doubling as federal immigration agents, speaking about crime when the Trump Administration is focused on deporting mothers and fathers instead of “bad hombres”, and supporting policies that harm children fleeing the kind of violence that Sessions was decrying. She also commended the Las Vegas police for building the kind of community relationships that have helped keep immigrants and Las Vegans of all stripes safe. View her tweets below:

Also check out this editorial from the Las Vegas Sun: Mr. Sessions, here’s why Las Vegas doesn’t support you on immigration