John Tuman, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who focuses on the Latino electorate, said that was necessary in a state with voters interested in hearing about reforming the overall immigration system.
“It pays dividends politically to push immigration from the margins to the center,” Mr. Tuman said.
But Andrea Masnata, a 34-year-old Nevada resident who immigrated from Bolivia, said she and many Latino peers were not enthused with either candidate. She had also noticed Latinos increasingly becoming disengaged with the Democratic Party, said Ms. Masnata, the communications director for Make the Road Action in Nevada, a grass-roots group of Latinos and other working-class people of color.
“It’s a clear statement of the disappointment the community has,” Ms. Masnata said, adding that many of her peers were concerned about grocery and housing prices, and the administration using immigration as a political talking point. “They know we have one option that is less threatening to our community, but they don’t feel backed by President Biden, either.”
Like the overall electorate in Nevada, Mr. Tuman said, Latino voters want to see progress on the economy, including job growth and lower housing costs.
Mr. Biden visited Washoe County, the home of Reno and Nevada’s lone swing county, where he said Mr. Trump would work to undo the Biden administration’s agenda. At the same time, his campaign kicked off a program called Latinos con Biden-Harris, which will organize Latino voters in battleground states with significant Hispanic communities, including Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin. It will focus on Mexican Americans, Venezuelan Americans and Puerto Ricans.