Vegas student tells Senate promise of Obama immigration action

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s offer of temporary legal status to millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally promises their families a path to normalcy and a reprieve from fear of being separated through deportation, Las Vegas student Astrid Silva told the Senate on Wednesday.

As lawmakers fight bitterly over the Obama executive action on immigration announced in November, Silva offered herself as a face of young people who are benefiting from reform and thirst for others to be able to enjoy the same.

“The latest efforts by President Obama will keep my family together,” Silva told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It will keep millions of families together. Of course there are many, many more that it will not help.”

Silva, who was brought illegally into the United States when she was 4 years old, was granted temporary legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that Obama established in 2012. Because she has a brother who was born in the United States and is a citizen, the president’s latest action offers her undocumented mother and father the chance at legal papers good for three years at least.

Silva, a student at Nevada State College in Henderson and an organizer at the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, delivered testimony that was emotional at times. Her voice broke as she talked about her father being detained temporarily and threatened with deportation when she was young.

“Just to have my dad in a detention center for one week was devastating to me,” Silva said. “I can’t imagine a 5- or 6-year-old coming home and not knowing where mom and dad are. Knowing now we are going to be able to plan our holidays, that was something we didn’t have three weeks ago” before Obama issued his order.

Families of undocumented immigrants fear calling 911 or drawing attention to themselves, Silva said. “I’ve had friends who were afraid to report their license plates had been stolen,” she said.

Silva noted she was wearing a ribbon and button in memory of Tomasa Macias, a Las Vegas woman who was afraid to call for an ambulance when she suffered a stroke this summer. She died several weeks later.

Silva has emerged as a figure in the immigration movement through her association with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has become a close friend and whom she calls “abuelito,” or “grandfather.”

Her story of crossing the Rio Grande as a young girl wearing patent leather shoes and carrying little more than a doll has been mentioned by Obama in speeches, and the Las Vegas woman was chosen to introduce the president at a November rally at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas.

“What deferred action did was change my life,” Silva said. “I’ve been able to get a job, to save up enough money so I can finish my education. Now I’ve been able to learn how to drive.”

The Senate hearing on immigration, along with another held in the House on Wednesday and press conferences held on Capitol Hill this week, amounted to efforts by supporters and foes of the president’s action to get in the last word before Congress adjourns for the year.

It also served as notice that immigration likely will remain an issue far from resolution in the coming year. The Senate hearing was dominated by debate, heated at times, among scholars and senators over whether Obama’s order was constitutional or exceeded his executive authority.

Democrats seized on Silva’s testimony to rally behind Obama’s action.

“I think we need to be doing everything possible to keep families from being torn apart,” said Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.

But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Silva that Obama’s executive action will be harmful to her and others in the long run because it has driven a wedge between the president and Congress.

Obama “has poisoned the well in taking a controversial subject and making it worse,” Cornyn said. “He has violated his oath and harmed the case of Ms. Silva by making it harder for us to do our job.”

“My heart goes out to you, Ms. Silva, but our liberty requires the government obey some limits on its powers, including the separation of powers,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “If we don’t follow the rule of law, we are in trouble.”

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760. Find him on Twitter: @STetreaultDC.