Cortez Masto meets with Nevada Dreamers as they voice concerns over future

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — After last week's federal court ruling left Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in limbo, DACA recipients in Nevada voiced their concerns at a Wednesday roundtable as Senator Catherine Cortez Masto pledged her continued support.

The federal ruling sent it back to lower courts, allowing current DACA recipients, or Dreamers, to stay in the program while blocking any new applications.

DACA was first announced by former President Barack Obama in 2012 as a way to temporarily protect undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children from deportation. Many Dreamers have no memory or knowledge of where they came from and consider themselves Americans.

However, DACA does not offer a pathway to permanent citizenship. Now back to being up in the air, Dreamers are worried everything they've worked for might be thrown out the window.

Many advocates see Congressional legislation as the best path forward. Sen. Cortez Masto reminded the audience today that bipartisan DREAM Act legislation was passed during Donald Trump's presidency, but he "torpedoed" the bill.

In order for the Senate to pass such legislation, at least 10 Republicans would have to sign on, which Cortez Masto doesn't see as likely.

"I know it's a priority for me. And it should be a priority for everyone," she said. "And not just the administration. It should be for the Republicans. It should be for the business owners. It should be for everybody in our community that has benefited from the essential work that they have done—Dreamers in our community."

One option for pushing legislation through is during the lame duck session after the midterm elections when many senators are no longer campaigning and have nothing to lose.

"Maybe. Because there isn't an election year politics playing during the lame duck that some of my Republican colleagues will have the courage to come forward and do the right thing on this issue," she said. "But I don't know. I mean, I've been there for six years now. And I've seen we've come so close."

One person in attendance Wednesday was Valeria Valdez Rios, a freshmen UNLV student studying computer engineering. She's an undocumented immigrant who can no longer apply for DACA due to the current status of DACA. She's been in the US since she was two-years-old and has no memory of where she came from. She's been in Nevada for the majority of her life, first in Winnemucca and now in Las Vegas.

"My biggest day-to-day fear is that everything I've worked hard for is gonna go to the waste." Rios said as tears welled in her eyes. "I worked hard to go study. I wish to support my mother. And without DACA, I'm left hopeless. And it literally is the end of my life. I have no future. If I'm not provided the same benefits as a US citizen or DACA recipient."

News 3 reached out to the Adam Laxalt campaign, Cortez Masto's Republican challenger, and they tied the DACA ruling to the broader issue of border security.

“Nevadans do not trust Washington D.C. to reform immigration laws until we stop the flow of illegal crossing at our southern border," the Laxalt campaign said. "Once our border is under control, we need an efficient, merit-based immigration system that works. But none of that is possible if there is no incentive to comply with our rules.”

Cortez Masto pushed back on Wednesday saying Dreamers can be protected and border security can be addressed separately.

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