In Case You Missed It, Adam Laxalt continues to face scrutiny after Axios reported on his history of attacking Dreamer protections that would have prevented his own undocumented grandmother from facing deportation. 

As attorney general, Laxalt sued to deport millions of undocumented immigrants by blocking deportation protections. Laxalt was so aggressive in his anti-Dreamer efforts that it led to a public fight with Republican Governor Brian Sandoval. On the campaign trail, Laxalt has run TV and radio ads highlighting his efforts to attack Nevada’s Dreamers, and he’s even peddled the “replacement theory” — a “racist and anti-semitic conspiracy” centered around the idea that minorities, including Latinos, are to blame for problems in America.

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The Daily Beast: GOP Candidate Who Railed Against DREAMers Had an Undocumented Grandmother
Asta Hemenway // 10.19.22

Key Points:

• Nevada’s Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt has taken a firm stance against illegal immigration and against protecting the rights of DREAMers. But that comes in stark contrast to his own family history. 
• After coming to the U.S. at the age of 3, she “unknowingly was an illegal alien,” Domenici said, and federal immigration officials detained her during the early 1940s. After six months, Domenici said his family paid for a lawyer who helped fix her immigration status, amending her “certificate of arrival” to say she came in legally, according to Axios. 
• Now, many immigrants don’t have the same opportunities and are instead deported, DREAMer activist Astrid Silva told Axios.

The Week: Adam Laxalt, hardline immigration candidate for GOP, had undocumented grandmother: Report
Justin Klawans // 10.19.22

Key Points: 

• Adam Laxalt, the GOP’s Senate nominee in Nevada, has promoted a platform staunchly against DREAMers and illegal immigration — despite his own grandmother allegedly being an undocumented immigrant. 
• Axios reported Wednesday that Laxalt’s father, the late Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), revealed during a Senate speech in 2006 that his mother was “unknowingly … an illegal alien,” and was once even detained by immigration agents. Domenici told colleagues his mother immigrated to New Mexico from Italy in 1907.
• “They decided she had to be arrested because she was an illegal alien,” Domenici said. “So, sure enough, they came to do that and a neighbor had to come over to take care of us kids.”
• Despite these family ties, Laxalt has continually taken a hardline stance against illegal immigration, making it one of the key issues throughout his campaign. According to the FCC, Laxalt’s campaign has spent $13,000 running anti-DREAMER radio ads. 
• The nominee also helmed a statewide lawsuit against DACA, the Obama administration policy that protects immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation.

Axios: GOP candidate and immigration hardliner had a grandmother who faced deportation

Russell Contreras // 10.19.22

Key Points: 

• Why it matters: Republicans are making illegal immigration a crucial issue in the midterm elections, and Laxalt is seizing on this in Nevada, where more immigrants have been moving to work in the casino and hotel industries.
• But family histories are complicated and can disclose uncomfortable truths that conflict with today’s politics.

• During the GOP primary, Laxalt’s campaign spent around $13,000 running radio ads in Elko and Las Vegas touting his opposition to DREAMer protections.
• As Nevada’s attorney general, he joined a lawsuit against the federal government over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
• DACA is the Obama-era policy that has shielded from deportation over 800,000 immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.
• Laxalt’s campaign has likened the policy to amnesty for illegal immigrants.

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