Last month, Karla Ortiz and her mother, Francisca, spoke to their hometown newspaper about the constant fear they have lived with since Karla’s parents received a deportation order in 2013. She shared her concerns with Clinton during a campaign stop in Las Vegas earlier this year, and Clinton called her fearless and told her she would worry on her behalf.
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Karla appeared along with her undocumented mother, Latin American immigrant Francisca Ortiz to make the case for comprehensive immigration reform and to round up immigrant voters, and told those gathered in the Wells Fargo Center that she is anxious her parents would be deported.
However, she said she has “esperanza” – hope.
But she doesn’t feel fearless every day. Karla says she worries about what might happen if she comes home and finds her house empty. “I’ll do all the worrying, is that a deal?” In the video, she is seen telling the Democratic candidate how scared she was that her parents were going to be deported, which prompts Clinton to beckon her over and asks her to be fearless and let her do the worrying.
Delegates, left, Alvin Peters, of Panama City, Florida, Ronnie Traylor and Rodney McFarland, Monroe Louisiana, speak on the floor.
Las Vegas immigration activist and Dreamer Astrid Silva told the crowd how she has seen Clinton comfort children like Karla Ortiz who are scared of losing their parents to deportation. “When Donald Trump talks about deporting 11 million immigrants, he’s talking about ripping apart families like Karla’s”.
“Hillary Clinton understands that this is not who we are as a country”, Silva added.
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On Monday night, these three Nevadans took the stage at the Democratic National Convention to share their experiences with immigration – Karla Ortiz as the daughter of undocumented immigrants, living in fear that they’ll be deported, and her mother, Francisca Oritz, and Silva as undocumented immigrants themselves. “I know she will”.
