LAS VEGAS (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand is pitching her ideas to improve the asylum process for immigrants while touring a law clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas that helps unaccompanied immigrant children.

The senator from New York kicked off her first presidential campaign trip to Nevada on Thursday by taking notes as she collected input from immigration law students describing the cases they work on.

Gillibrand says she's working on legislation that would guarantee asylum seekers a lawyer, create a system for Americans to foster immigrant children and break immigration judges out from under the U.S. Department of Justice so they can be independent.

She planned to meet Thursday afternoon with former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and mingle with voters at a downtown Las Vegas bar.