LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) -- They helped keep President Barack Obama in office. Now Latinos are looking to hold him to his word.
“In Nevada, 80 percent of the Latinos voted for Barack Obama,” said Jose Solorio with the Si Se Puede Latino Democratic Caucus.
“Promises have been made to the Latino community,” said Las Vegas Latino activist Vicenta Montoya. “We expect those promises to be kept.”
On the night after the election, leaders of local Latino groups got together in front of the federal courthouse.
Their focus was changing deportation laws that split up parents and children.
“Immigration that we have now is destruction of the family,” said Montoya.
That split happened to Aurora Aguilar. Aguilar is an American citizen. She said her husband was in the U.S. illegally. Authorities deported him to Mexico.
“This is a man that has paid his taxes here, has worked here 18 years, that has an American citizen wife, that has kids here,” said Aguilar. “We have a home, and now from one day to another it's like he died.”
Aguilar’s husband has been gone for two years. Since then, his American-born children have seen him four times.
“He's missed out on a lot of her teeth falling,” said Aguilar about her 5-year-old. “He's missed out on going to parent conferences.”
A U.S. Consulate order has Aguilar's husband out of the country for at least eight more years.
“I have faith that it's not going to be eight more years,” said Aguilar.
Aguilar said she thinks President Obama can cut that time.
Her struggle is just one of several that helped re-elect the president.
“There are a lot of families that are being separated,” said Aguilar.
Many now depend on President Obama to bring back their loved ones.
