Nevada’s senior U.S. Senator, Catherine Cortez-Mastos, posted this sweet note to social media recently. It included a picture of her grandfather, an immigrant from Mexico, and this note:
“When my grandfather came to America from Mexico, he didn't know what our future had in store. But he worked hard, and now his granddaughter is the first Latina U.S. Senator.
“That's the kind of opportunity that I'm fighting to make sure all our families can continue to reach for.”
If only every immigrant were like her grandfather. The reality, however, is we have a crisis at the Mexican border with thousands of people storming across illegally — day-in, day-out. Not just from Mexico but from around the world, some from sworn enemies of the United States. While Sen. Cortez-Mastos has been an attentive U.S. Senator for Nevada, she needs to part ways with the Biden Administration on immigration policy to keep her family’s immigration legacy alive.
Edward Cayetano Cortez came to America and “worked hard” to make a place for himself and his family in the greatest country on the planet. His son, Manny, who I knew well, became an important politician in Clark County and eventually a big shot in Las Vegas gaming and tourism circles.
The Cortez family patriarch didn’t come to America screaming “death to America” as some did in Michigan last week. He didn’t come here with neck tattoos looking to extend a Central American gang’s tbusiness to Las Vegas. He didn’t kill and rape a nursing student after sneaking across the border.
He came to make a better life for himself. To work hard. We live in a different world than when Mr. Cortez came to America. I applaud him for bettering himself and raising a granddaughter to become a U.S. Senator. Pretty damn cool.
But this is a different time and Sen. Cortez-Mastos needs to stop supporting an immigration policy that really is no policy at all. She needs to start advocating for an immigration policy like the one that allowed her father to better his life here, not destroy the lives of people already here.
Look, we face immense challenges at the Mexican border. Right now, the Biden Administration is asleep at the wheel. We need change. Maybe Sen. Catherine Cortez-Mastos can lead her party back to a sane policy. To do that Sen. Cortez-Mastos cannot rest on the legacy of her grandfather. She must stand up to the immigration insanity of her political party.
She has the cred, does she have the backbone?
ONE MORE THING
Current immigration policy explained.