June is National Immigrant Heritage Month, proclaimed by former President Barack Obama a dozen years ago to honor the diverse experiences and contributions of people who immigrate to America.
Historically, Nevada has had a large foreign-born population. It was made up of 44% immigrants just six years after being declared an official state, and maintains a higher-than-average percentage today. But for some of Nevada’s roughly 640,000 immigrant residents, this year has lacked a feeling of celebration … including June.
Today, immigrant entrepreneurs represent nearly 27% of business owners in Nevada, and according to the American Immigration Council they are responsible for $1.5 billion of Nevada’s total business income.
Yazmin Flores and her husband, Enrique Fuentes, are among those immigrant entrepreneurs. Attached to their car, you will find their quaint coffee trailer, Tres Niñas Cafe, which they haul around the city of Las Vegas with them. The sliding window opens, tunes of Spanish-language music fill the air, and a hand reaches out to serve an ombre beverage of dark espresso blended with milk.
“If it reflected us being celebrated, then it'd be different," Flores says, reckoning with the irony that came with the month of June. "But the way the laws are going right now, it seems like we all have to be in hiding.”
Flores is a first-generation American. Her husband immigrated from Mexico in 2005. Together, they share one aspect of their business's foundation: pride in their heritage. Their cafe-on-wheels offers themed drinks, authentic pastries and what they say is a safe place for people in the community.
But, over the past year, Flores and Fuentes, and their customers ,have faced challenges, especially with regard to Immigration Customs and Enforcement, they say. As arrests hit an all-time high, and fear surges with it, Flores has been forced to make tough decisions, like closing up shop.
“Even though financially it puts a strain on us, we decided to close because we would hate for something to happen or for somebody to show up, especially when we promote being Mexican and we promote supporting each other,” she says.
President Donald Trump did bring attention to immigrants in June, but not as part of a celebration. The month was closed with a Supreme Court ruling upholding his decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants, as well as the ability to turn back asylum seekers at the border.
Earlier in the month, on June 10, Trump also signed the Secure America Act. It gave the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement agencies $70 billion, which means fully funding the agencies through his second term.
As he signed the bill into law, he remarked, "Starting on day one of my administration, we took the most dangerous, unsafe, violence, and open border people out of this country. We got them out.”
Governor Lombardo was among 22 Republican governors that urged Congress to pass the act. In a joint letter, they deemed the funding necessary to protect the nation from immigrants Lombardo described as “dangerous criminals, drug traffickers, and human traffickers.”
In the past year alone, ICE arrests have increased dramatically. Some months had triple the number of average daily arrests compared to a year earlier, according to Michael Kagan, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, law professor and Immigration Clinic director. With the Secure America Act newly passed, he notes, the money must be put toward something.
“There is a basic contradiction that they like to say we're going after the worst of the worst. But ... only 3% of the people they're arresting have a conviction for a violent felony …" Kagan says. "The United States government, at the highest levels right now, is doing everything possible to tell immigrants whether they have even citizens green cards, every possible status to tell people you're not wanted.”
The result Kagan sees? Immigrants living with intense levels of fear and uncertainty about their day-to-day lives.
That’s how Norma Torres feels. She’s a single mom of four who immigrated from Mexico when she was 11 years old. She is part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, or DACA, which allows her a protected status to work in the U.S.
She is currently a housekeeper on the Strip. “I feel proud of my job. It's something that is hard, too,” Torres says.
Hospitality is a major economic driver in Las Vegas, and immigrants make up nearly one-third of that industry. However, Torres often feels her contribution, and those of her immigrant colleagues, go unrecognized. She said, "If the companies don't have things like housekeeping or food servers or anything like that, the hotels, they're not like what they are.”
Her work isn’t the only thing going unrecognized. Torres' DACA work authorization must be renewed every two years. But recent unexplained delays in these renewals from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are leaving some — and their incomes — at risk.
“In my case, I had to renew before September of this year," she explains. "I did it in March, and haven't heard anything about it.”
The immigration service’s radio silence has left Torres worried about her work status. Losing her job would mean not being able to provide for herself and her children, one of whom suffers from autism and requires medicine and therapy five times a week.
UNLV’s Kagan says these delays have broader effects. He describes them as self-destructive for the economic and social community.
“When a DACA work permit is delayed, someone might have trouble paying their mortgage or paying their car loan ... That's actually not good for anybody else either, because that makes it harder for banks to issue mortgages to someone else who wants to buy a house, because that money has to come from somewhere,” Kagan says.
However, not all immigrants are concerned about the process changes.
“They are coming over here illegally. I’m from Germany. I had to come with papers. I never lived off the government. I worked all my life,” Sigrid O'dell said at a primary election polling site in early June. O'dell immigrated from Germany and supports Trump’s recent strategies, feeling migrants should go through similar legal channels as she did.
Back at Tres Nina’s Cafe, Yazmin Flores says concerns about handouts are common misconceptions she encounters.
“Some people think that we're just here, he even yelled at us that we were getting assistance from the government, and we get no type of assistance from the government…" Flores says. "I don't hold it against people because I feel like some people are just not looking into the background of it.”
Of course, in a city as diverse as Las Vegas, reminders of immigrant contributions are around every corner. Flores says it helps bring people together, adding that community support is "enough to feel like we have that love."
She says that will continue, regardless if that recognition happens in June for National Immigrant Heritage Month or not.
