Las Vegas Sun

By Megan Messerly

Tue, Oct 18, 2016 (4:03 p.m.)

Three Nevadans have been invited as guests of Democrat Hillary Clinton to attend the third and final presidential debate Wednesday night at UNLV.

Clinton’s guests include local activist and Dreamer Astrid Silva, 11-year-old Karla Ortiz and Trump International Hotel housekeeper Ofelia Diaz Cardenas, according to a Clinton campaign official.

Both Silva and Ortiz spoke at the Democratic National Convention in July and have been featured prominently in Clinton’s campaign ads.

During a campaign stop earlier this year, Ortiz told Clinton how she was scared she would come home one day to find that her parents, who are undocumented, had been deported. She shared the same story in front of a packed arena in Philadelphia, and it was also featured in one of Clinton’s campaign ads.

“My parents came here for a better life, for the American dream — el sueno americano — but I don’t feel brave every day,” Ortiz told thousands of convention attendees. “On most days, I’m scared. I’m scared that my mom and dad will be forced to leave.”

Silva, who is undocumented, also shared her story at the convention, stressing how important the president’s executive actions on immigration have been for her, allowing her to work and live in the United States without fear of deportation.

Silva came to the United States as a 4-year-old with her parents, who would also qualify for deportation relief had the president’s executive action not been blocked by the courts.

Cardenas, meanwhile, was one of a handful of workers at Trump International Hotel who started wearing pro-union buttons during workers’ unionization attempts in 2014. Workers voted to unionize in December, but hotel management has yet to begin negotiations.

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