Washington, DC – Republicans’ hostility to DACA and Dreamers’ protections and continued presence in the U.S. is a powerful distinction between the parties and candidates in the election homestretch. This is particularly true in a state like Nevada and the Senate contest between incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican nominee Adam Laxalt, the former state Attorney General.
- As state AG, Adam Laxalt joined Nevada onto the Texas-led lawsuit against DACA that has kept Dreamers in continued limbo and threatens to officially end the popular and successful DACA program in the near future.
- Additionally, Laxalt ran radio ads in Las Vegas and Elko during the contested GOP Senate primary touting his hostility to Dreamers.
In the campaign homestretch of this close contest, Senator Cortez Masto is leaning into her support for Dreamers as a revealing point of contrast with her opponent and an important mobilizing issue for Latino voters and other overwhelmingly pro-Dreamer voters. Yesterday, Senator Cortez Masto held a Las Vegas roundtable with seven Nevada Dreamers. As the Las Vegas Sun highlighted in, “Cortez Masto calls out those ‘playing politics’ with the lives of Nevada’s ‘Dreamers’”:
“Cortez Masto, the first-ever Latina elected to the Senate and who is fighting for re-election against Republican Adam Laxalt in the Nov. 8 midterms, has pushed for lawmakers to pass a bill providing a pathway to permanent citizenship for DACA recipients.
‘Dreamers grew up here, they work here, and they’ve built their lives here,’ Cortez Masto said. ‘They are a vital part of our community and their voices belong at the table in Washington and at home in Nevada. There are a lot of people who are playing politics with their lives and now is the time for us to call them out.’
Nevada is home to about 11,500 Dreamers, many of whom were essential workers who helped the state navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. There has been little action by Congress on the issue since the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in 2019 that dismissed a challenge to DACA by ex-President Donald Trump. But Cortez Masto said there could be a vote later this year in the Senate during the lame duck session on a bill that would codify DACA protections.”
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Deputy Director of America’s Voice:
“Adam Laxalt’s hostility to Dreamers is a clarifying point. He is committed more to his nativism than what is best for Nevada, and his hostility to Dreamers is wildly unpopular with Latino voters and other broad swaths of the electorate. Good on Senator Cortez Masto for leaning into this important and revealing contrast, making her support for Dreamers explicit, and conducting yesterday’s roundtable with Dreamers.
In Nevada, as well as across the country, thousands of Dreamers are fully integrated into communities, families and the economy. Democrats should continue to lean in and address the status of Dreamers – it’s both politically beneficial and an overdue legislative priority that a Democratic Congress should address before the end of the year.”
