In the remote Nevada desert, the Baker ranch could not survive without the migrant workers who arrive each year from Mexico.
About 300 miles (480 kilometers) south, in Las Vegas – increasingly a vacation spot for Americans of all political and socioeconomic backgrounds – migrants are just as vital. And they keep an economy going that works 24 hours a day, every day.
Immigration has become a source of fear and frustration for voters in these presidential elections that could take the United States down two radically different paths. But migrants who have been in the country for decades say that a nuanced issue has been drowned out by seemingly simpler solutions advocated by both parties.
Nowhere are the complicated economic and social realities behind the burning political divide on immigration more clear than in Nevada, a swing state that could decide an increasingly close election.
Here are highlights from the AP report:
How immigration has influenced the presidential race
The influx of people illegally crossing the border has strained municipal and state resources, even in Democratic strongholds across the country, even as migrant apprehensions have dropped sharply in recent months. And yet, immigration has boosted job growth, thereby strengthening the economy and improving the fiscal health of the federal government.
Former President Donald Trump is championing hardline proposals that would force mass deportations, while Vice President Kamala Harris is calling for paths to citizenship for millions of people who are in the country illegally. But Harris also calls for more funding for border security and strengthening the Biden administration’s measures that tightened rules for migrants to apply for asylum in the United States when they arrive at the southern border.
“I think our focus is completely directed toward the border and not toward the people who are already here and have been here for many, many years,” said Erika Márquez, a migrant justice organizer with the advocacy group Make the Road Nevada.
Bipartisan support for guest workers: to some extent
Both parties have called for expanding guest worker programs in agriculture.
The Trump administration deemed seasonal farmworkers essential during the coronavirus pandemic, and participation in the program increased during his tenure. But he also proposed a rule that froze farmworkers’ wages for two years, relaxed workers’ housing requirements and restricted the transportation costs they could be reimbursed for.
The Biden administration eliminated those rules. Since then, more than 310,000 H-2A visas — for temporary jobs in agriculture — were issued in fiscal year 2023, up from about 213,000 in fiscal year 2020, the last full one under Trump. But the Biden White House also imposed a series of new rules aimed at better protecting workers that have at times discouraged business owners like the Bakers.
“It’s a hot potato and each side is throwing it at the other. And, honestly, they are both to blame,” said Janille Baker, who does the ranch’s accounting, referring to immigration. “There will come a time when it will have to be dealt with. “You can’t keep resorting to scaremongering and scaring people, and then be critical of people who do or don’t want to do any work.”
A state economy driven by migrants
In Nevada, nearly 19% of residents are foreign-born and 9% of the total workforce does not have legal U.S. status. If the state lost all of its workers in the country illegally, Labor Department figures suggest direct job losses would be roughly as large as those from the 2008 financial crisis, which crippled tourism, triggered a wave of foreclosures in the housing market and cost the state about 9.3% of its jobs during the subsequent Great Recession.
“In our wonderful 24-hour economy, we know that these hotels and casinos could not, should not, would not be able to open every day without migrants,” said Peter Guzmán, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. Latina from Nevada.
And even adding people who are in the country illegally might not take into account those who have temporary protected status, or the Baker farm’s guest workers, all of whom are authorized to be in the United States.
Haydee Zetino, who cleans luxurious hotel suites at Harrah’s Casino on The Las Vegas Strip – the famous strip of the city where most of the hotels, casinos and resorts are located – is a migrant from El Salvador with a temporary protected status in the United States. Zetino, 62, watched as Trump tried to eliminate many of those protections during his first term and worries it could happen again if he wins, even if she herself cannot vote because she is not a citizen.
“These people have no conscience,” he said of supporters of mass deportation. “They believe they can lift the country, advance the economy, but they don’t think about those below.”
A small state that could be a major factor on Election Day
The Pew Research Center estimates that 11 million people live in the United States illegally. Large states like California, Texas, and Florida have larger numbers of people who could have even more influence on the workforce and communities. But all of those states are firmly Republican or Democratic in presidential elections, and are not likely to sway the election the way Nevada might.
Despite having only six Electoral College votes, Nevada could go for Trump or Harris. Clark County, which encompasses Las Vegas, has about 75% of the state’s population and includes a sizable number of hospitality industry workers represented by the powerful Nevada Culinary Union, which has supported Harris.
But already in 2020, Trump managed to attract rare voters there, and did well in much of the rest of the state, which is rural and more conservative. Washoe County, where Reno is located, is a toss-up. Voters can also choose “None” of the presidential candidates, adding to the famously fickle nature of the Nevada electorate.
All of this makes some voters fear the outcome of the election.
“There is a lot of fear,” shared Nancy Valenzuela, a 48-year-old maid who works at the Strat casino. “There are people who don’t have papers and who are asking themselves: ‘They want to kick us all out.’”
Originally Published: October 22, 2024 at 4:20 p.m.
