Nevada lawmakers denounce attacks on immigrant community, call for Latino resistance

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During a community town hall in Las Vegas, Nevada, state legislators issued an urgent call for the Latino community to get organized, resist, and not be paralyzed by fear amid a growing climate of political hostility.

At an event organized by Make the Road Nevada, Democratic lawmakers Edgar Flores, Shea Backus, and Max Carter discussed key bills, criticized Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo for vetoing certain bills, and warned about the impact of federal policies threatening immigrant and working-class families in the state.

“We’ve heard from many families telling us, ‘We’re not going to church. We don’t want to go to the doctor. We don’t go out to the store. There are many things we’re not doing because of the fear that exists due to the threat from this federal administration, from the propaganda spreading in our community against our community,’” said state Sen. Flores. “I know American citizens—teenagers, young people who are US citizens—who believe that this administration might come after them tomorrow and potentially deport them, because there’s so much misinformation that we no longer know what to believe.”

Flores highlighted Assembly Bill 217, which was sponsored by Democratic Assemblymember Cecilia González and negotiated with the governor. The bill aimed to prohibit federal immigration agents (ICE) from entering public schools without a court-issued warrant.

“A child from our community doesn’t understand the concept of citizenship. He or she simply knows, ‘I have this skin color, and that potentially means they want to deport me,’ because that is the reality that child is living,” Flores said. “So we had to send a collective message as a state that if ICE was going to do its job, it would have to do it in public spaces—as is the case today—and that they would not have access to our schools.”

Although the bill passed both chambers of the state legislature, Lombardo vetoed it once it reached his desk. Flores said the message the governor sent to the community by not approving AB217 was “that not even our children have this governor’s support, not even our children have a voice.”

“It’s honestly one of the most disappointing things we’ve heard from this governor,” Flores added.

School districts in Clark and Washoe counties have implemented local policies prohibiting teachers and schools from cooperating with ICE unless agents present a judge-signed warrant specifying who they are looking for and why.

The Clark County School District confirmed to Las Vegas news outlet Fox 5 that it does not verify students’ immigration status, it does not enforce federal immigration law, and has procedures in place in the event immigration agents appear on campus.

Assemblyman Carter, meanwhile, expressed outrage at the hypocrisy of some lawmakers, particularly for their lack of support for bills to recognize Dolores Huerta and the state’s Indigenous peoples.

“I saw this phenomenon in the legislature where we had the other party that when bills came up celebrating people that looked like them in the mirror, they were giving impassioned speeches, voting and cheering. But when bills came up supporting people who did not look like them, the Dolores Huerta bill for example, they mocked it, they laughed, and they proudly bragged about voting no,” Carter said. 

“They do not want to celebrate any community that does not look like them, and that is wrong. That was one of the things that stuck out most in this session: Is this empowering of racism. They were empowered and it was disgusting, up to the governor’s office, we saw it over and over again.”

The lawmakers made a strong call for political engagement, especially ahead of the 2026 elections.

“ But we also have to be aware that those of us that are privileged enough to have been born in this country or have status in this country or naturalized, we have to stand up because it’s too vulnerable for members of our community,” Carter said. “We need to stand up. We need to speak out. We need to match their nasty rhetoric with nasty rhetoric of our own. Forget this ‘when they go low, we go high.’ We need to take and punch back.”