Immigration activists protest outside Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s office in Las Vegas on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, over his decision to join a lawsuit challenging a federal deportation deferral plan.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015 | 3:37 p.m.
Adam Laxalt
Las Vegas immigration activists, still incensed over Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s decision to join a lawsuit challenging a federal deportation deferral plan, staged their third rally since January to denounce the move.
The protest outside Laxalt’s office coincides with the canceled rollout of a new program dubbed the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, which would have helped immigrant parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
Under a directive from President Barack Obama, federal employees were supposed to begin accepting applications today.
“Nevada deserves better,” Yvana Cancela of the Culinary Workers Union said at the rally outside Laxalt’s office in Las Vegas.
About 50 people attended the brief and peaceful protest, organized by the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.
A small group walked up to a secretary inside the building to deliver a letter urging Laxalt to reconsider Nevada’s participation in “the mean-spirited lawsuit” led by the Texas governor and attorney general.
Laxalt, a Republican, controversially signed on to the suit in January without first consulting with GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval, who distanced himself from the attorney general’s decision.
The move split Republicans and drew fierce criticism from Nevada’s immigration activists, who held a February rally in Las Vegas and another in March outside Laxalt’s Carson City office, where they blocked roads to get his attention.
Democrats broadly oppose the lawsuit. Rep. Dina Titus took to the House floor today to tell her colleagues in Congress that the legal battle has put 17,000 immigrants in Nevada in limbo, where they “must wait for relief in fear of being torn from their families.”
At the Las Vegas protest, Dulce Valencia, 19, said, “The fact that Attorney General Adam Laxalt doesn’t want our families here angers me.”
Valencia and her parents qualify for relief under the newly announced immigration plan.
“He wants five seconds of fame. Because he wants to play political games, we’re here today,” Valencia said.
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