Democratic 2016 presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton will be taking another step to try and rally Latino voter support behind her with a trip to Las Vegas next week to speak to a gathering of Latino elected officials.
Campaign spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said Wednesday morning Clinton is on the agenda to speak Thursday at the National Association of Elected and Appointed Officials conference that runs June 17-19.
"The road to the White House in 2016 runs through the Latino community," said Arturo Vargas, NALEO executive director. "We are pleased to have Secretary Clinton join the nation's largest gathering of Latino policymakers once again and look forward to hearing her address some of the most pressing issues facing the Latino community today."
It's a second trip to Nevada for Clinton. She had visited a Las Vegas high school on Cinco de Mayo and declared her support for a path to citizenship for immigrants not legally in the U.S. She also criticized Republican candidates who have said they support giving legal status to such immigrants. That offer was code for "second-class status," she said then.
She also said then she did not think children and people who are vulnerable should be put in detention and said she would back Obama's immigration executive actions that would shield millions from deportation and go further, including finding a way for that protection from deportation to apply to parents of so-called Dreamers _ young people without legal status _who also are illegally in the country.
NALEO is made up of Republican and Democrat Latino public officeholders at every level of government and works to improve the numbers of Latinos in public office as well as improve the immigration system to increase citizenship among Latinos and other immigrants.
NALEO's conference agenda currently states that GOP and Democratic candidates will speak. Arrangements are in the works with other candidates.
