Obama says he came to Vegas to show he won’t give up on immigration reform

President Barack Obama said he returned to Las Vegas Friday, two years after promising comprehensive immigration reform here, to show he “will never give up” and still wants Congress to pass a bill even after he took executive action to protect 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

“Time has been wasted,” Obama said, adding that immigrant families have been separated while he waited for lawmakers to act on immigration. “Las Vegas, I come back to Del Sol to tell you I’m not giving up. I will never give up.”

Loud applause broke out in the gymnasium at Del Sol High School, where Obama spoke. The president was interrupted by one protester, however, who shouted that his family would not qualify for protection under Obama’s executive orders. The president said that’s why Congress must act because he doesn’t have the power to change immigration laws themselves.

“That’s right, not everybody will qualify under this provision. That’s the truth,” Obama said. “… I heard you, and what I’m saying is we’re still going to have to pass a bill. … This is a first step.”

When the man continued yelling, Obama got him to quiet down by telling him, “I’ve been respectful to you. I want you to be respectful to me, all right?”

The man walked out of the gym on his own. But security guards were escorting him by the time he got outside.

That heckler was Jose Patino, 25, of Phoenix. He came to Las Vegas with the group Arizona Dream Act Coalition. He described himself and his siblings as DREAMers. His parents won’t qualify for protection under Obama’s order, he said.

“I got my message across,” Patino told the Review-Journal. “Dreamers need their parents, too. We started this fight and we are going to continue fighting.”

After arriving at McCarran International Airport after noon, Obama signed two documents on Air Force One that will carry out his executive orders, which he announced in a nationally televised speech Thursday night. He came to Las Vegas to sell the program, returning to Del Sol where in January 2013 he first called for comprehensive immigration reform.

Since then, the U.S. Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill more than a year ago. But the GOP-led House has refused to take up the matter, prompting Obama to go around Congress despite Republicans saying he doesn’t have the legal authority to block deportations for certain undocumented immigrants. His orders will mostly affect undocumented immigrants who have children who were born here as U.S. citizens or who came here while young.

The crowd of about 1,000, more than half students, chanted “Si’ Se Puede,” or “Yes We Can,” several times during Obama’s speech, repeating a campaign theme from when he ran for president.

Obama vowed to keep working with Congress to make permanent immigration reform “a reality.”

“But until that day comes, there are actions that I have the legal authority to take that will help make our immigration system more fair and more just,” he said during his 32-minute speech. “…Not everything that we want to do we can do.”

Obama was elected in 2008 on a promise to reform the immigration system but he made health care and reviving the recession-scarred economy higher priorities.

“Our immigration system has been broken for a very long time and everybody knows it,” Obama said. “For years we haven’t done much about it. Well, today we’re doing something about it.”

In Washington, House Speaker John Boehner declared Friday that Obama was “damaging the presidency” with his unilateral action on immigration. He said the Republican-run House will not stand by, but gave no hint of what the response would be.

“I will say to you, the House will, in fact, act,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said at a news conference. “We will listen to the American people, we will work with our members and we will work to protect the Constitution of the United States.”

Nevada is the perfect backdrop for Obama’s pitch for immigration reform.

More than 10 percent of Nevada’s workforce is living here illegally, the highest rate in the country and double the national average. Also, about one in five schoolchildren in the Silver State have at least one parent who’s an undocumented immigrant — far more than any other state, according to the Pew Research Center.

These adopted Nevadans are among the 11 million who came here illegally and who have been “living in the shadows” for years, all the time in danger of deportation until Obama took action.

Del Sol High School demonstrates the growing Hispanic population in Nevada, where 27 percent of its residents are Latino. Some 63 percent of Del Sol’s students are Hispanic. About 13 percent of Del Sol students are English language learners, as well.

Astrid Silva, a Las Vegas immigration advocate who came to the U.S. when she was 4 years old, introduced Obama, who mentioned her in his speech Thursday night as an example of an undocumented DREAMer who is succeeding here by getting several college degrees.

“I’m very excited. This moment has been coming for a very long time,” Silva, 26, said ahead of Obama’s speech. “Congress hasn’t done their job. … They’ve sat on their hands for a very long time. My mom and my dad are going to benefit. Now I know they can’t be deported at any time. This isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of a new chapter.”

Outside the school, dozens of protesters shouted slogans across the street about immigration and other topics. One man repeatedly said through a bullhorn: “Stop Obama’s trans-Pacific partnership. NAFTA on steroids.”

“Why are you holding an American flag for an American traitor, Barack Hussein Obama?” the man called out.

Protesters’ signs held messages including “Secure the border,” “Amnesty hell no!” and “Jail Obama.”

One student shook her head, saying she found it strange protesters were yelling at children. Other students said they were glad Obama chose to come to their school, which has a large number of undocumented students who face uncertain futures.

“There’s some really smart people, but they don’t have as many chances” as U.S.-born students, junior Juan Ponce said.

Obama has been to the Las Vegas high school twice before — in 2008 while running for president the first time and in January 2013 when he announced he would pursue comprehensive immigration reform.

The president is popular among Nevada Hispanics, who said on the eve of the Nov. 4 election this year that immigration is the most important issue to them, or 48 percent, according to a poll by Latino Decisions. In 2012 and 2010, most Nevada Hispanics polled said jobs and the economy were the most important issues, followed by immigration.

Obama, who won Nevada in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, won between 70 percent and 80 percent of the Latino vote here.

Only U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., did better, winning 90 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2010. Reid, who just lost the majority in the Senate to Republicans, said he plans to run for re-election in 2016. He’s counting on Latinos to win.

Reid traveled from Washington, D.C., to Las Vegas with Obama on Air Force One in a show of solidarity as the senator gears up for his re-election campaign. The Nevada Democrat has long lobbied for Congress to fix the broken immigration system that has allowed so much cross-border traffic as well as workers here illegally who often don’t pay taxes.

Under Reid’s guidance, the Senate, more than a year ago, passed a comprehensive immigration bill that would have beefed up border security, offered more work visas and provided a pathway to U.S. citizenship to those living here illegally as long as they paid back taxes. The GOP-led House, however, refused to take up the omnibus bill.

Reid and Obama blame Republicans, who have vowed to fight the president’s executive action “tooth and nail.”

“This is personal to me,” Reid said ahead of Obama’s visit to Las Vegas. “There is no issue I have worked on more in my time as Democratic leader than immigration reform. Comprehensive immigration reform brings relief to families being torn apart by our broken system. Comprehensive immigration reform is an economic issue and one we must address. That’s why I have been so disappointed that Republicans have ducked, dodged and skirted taking up legislation.”

Under Obama’s order, the main beneficiaries are immigrants who have been in the U.S. illegally for more than five years but whose children are citizens or lawful permanent residents. After passing background checks and paying fees, those individuals can now be granted relief from deportation for three years and get work permits. The administration expects about 4.1 million people to qualify.

Obama is also broadening his 2012 directive that deferred deportation for some young immigrants who entered the country illegally. Obama will expand eligibility to people who arrived in the U.S. as minors before 2010, instead of the current cutoff of 2007, and will lift the requirement that applicants be under 31. The expansion is expected to affect about 300,000 people

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., traveled with Obama to Las Vegas to support him on immigration.

“I applaud the president for using his authority to improve our immigration system in the absence of legislation,” Titus said, noting there are about 210,000 undocumented immigrants living in Nevada.

U.S. Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., criticized Obama for going around Congress.

“It’s disappointing that the president has chosen Las Vegas as his venue to ignore both the American people and the legislative authority of Congress,” Heck said. “It is increasingly disappointing when you consider that the president himself has repeatedly stated he does not have the authority to do what he is announcing today.”

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., voted for the Senate bill to fix the immigration system but said he disapproved of the president taking matters in his own hands.

“In utilizing an executive order, the president is being shortsighted and is merely offering a Band-Aid for a much larger issue,” Heller said. “This is not leadership. We need true comprehensive reform to fix our nation’s broken immigration system. The Senate already came up with a viable proposal. Now is the time for the president to work with Speaker Boehner to offer a realistic plan.”

GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval also disapproved of Obama’s action, saying immigration reform is necessary, but it must be a legislative solution, “not a unilateral decision by the executive branch.”

Obama planned to stay at an undisclosed location in Henderson on Friday and Saturday nights, according to the White House. He’s scheduled to leave from McCarran on Sunday.

Review-Journal writers James DeHaven, Eric Hartley, Bethany Barnes and Yesenia Amaro and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Find her on Twitter: @lmyerslvrj.