Sanders, Clinton make last-minute push for Nevada Hispanics
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are reaching out to Hispanics in Nevada, as polls show the two deadlocked just days before the state’s Democratic presidential caucus.
The Sanders campaign on Wednesday touted the Vermont senator’s momentum, while Clinton surrogates questioned his record on immigration.
{mosads}Joan Kato, Sanders’s Nevada campaign director, echoed the campaign’s central theme of equality in a phone-in town hall for Hispanics, saying Sanders is “fighting for the minorities and the person who isn’t represented.”
The Clinton campaign held a similar event Thursday, parading high-level endorsements and going on the offensive.
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and activist Dolores Huerta all portrayed Sanders as a late to the party on Hispanic issues.
Gutiérrez referenced a 2006 bill put forward by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), an aggressive immigration enforcement proposal widely criticized by civil rights organizations.
Sanders, then a House representative, sided with a bipartisan majority, including most Democrats, in supporting the bill, which called for “indefinite detention of specified dangerous aliens under orders of removal who cannot be removed.”
Gutiérrez said that “Sanders broke with Democrats and progressives” and “voted for a bill that would have allowed immigrants to be detained indefinitely.”
The Sanders camp avoided mentioning Clinton by name, but emphasized the competitive nature of the race. Kato called Nevada “a chance to make History” and warned supporters not to accept “anyone telling us ‘no we can’t.’ “
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