Hillary Clinton to visit Rancho High School on Tuesday

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will visit Rancho High School on Tuesday to talk about how to fix the nation’s broken immigration system, her campaign announced Sunday.

Her first stop in the battleground state of Nevada for the 2016 races comes as she tours the early voting states that kick off the formal competition for the White House with Election Day still 18 months away.

Clinton already visited Iowa and New Hampshire. After Nevada, South Carolina is the other early voting state she plans to tour. The former secretary of state and first lady is using low-key, intimate gatherings to chat up voters instead of holding larger rallies.

“Similar to her trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, Clinton will visit with Nevadans, listen to their concerns, share ideas, and commit to earning their votes,” the Clinton campaign said Sunday. “At Rancho High School in Las Vegas, she will join a round table of young Nevadans who are personally affected by our broken immigration system. She will discuss how reform could strengthen families and community.”

The gathering Tuesday is scheduled to begin at 2:45 p.m.

Immigration is a divisive issue in Nevada, where about 30 percent of the population is Hispanic. Advocates for comprehensive immigration reform argue it’s time to offer some sort of legal status to an estimated 11 million undocumented Hispanics who are living in the United States.

Conservative Republicans who have blocked comprehensive reform say changes must made step by step, starting with tightening security on the border.

President Barack Obama, frustrated by a lack of action in the GOP-led House, has taken executive action to protect immigrants from deportation if they’re not criminals and they’re working or going to school or in the military.

The president initially protected young immigrants who were raised here after their parents or relatives brought them across the border illegally. Obama later expanded the protection order to extend it mainly to people who already have family here.

A judge in Texas has put the order on hold after the state filed a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Find her on Twitter: @lmyerslvrj