-A look now at what voters are saying about immigration enforcement.

According to recent polling from The New York Times and Siena University, when asked whether they approve or disapprove of the way President Trump has handled the issue of immigration, 35% of respondents said they strongly approved, 12% said they somewhat approved, 9% said they somewhat disapproved, and 43% said they strongly disapproved.

It's an issue that helped get President Trump elected in 2024, but how important will it be in the midterms?

Let's discuss that and more with Steven Hilding, Vice President of Revolutionizing Microtargeted Campaigns.

Steven, welcome back to Nevada Week.

-Thanks for having me, Amber.

-You have more than 10 years of experience in working in Republican campaigns.

This issue of immigration and the President running on a platform of deporting criminal illegal immigrants, well, we just heard from a previous reporter in The Nevada Independent segment that that's not quite the case.

There are also people being arrested by ICE who have no criminal histories.

What do you think of how this has played out?

(Steven Hilding) You know, Amber, the President is more popular on immigration right now than he is on the economy.

There is no doubt this is what he ran on.

In every seat at the Republican National Convention there was a sign that said "Mass Deportations Now."

This was a signature issue that the President ran on.

According to a recent Nevada Independent article, about 15% of ICE arrests made in Nevada were noncriminals.

That means 85% of these folks had criminal backgrounds or committed a crime at the time they were arrested.

I think it's certainly fair to say that President Trump and ICE are starting with the criminal illegal aliens, 85% of which that have been arrested so far have been criminal illegals.

-So no issue from the conservative side of, we may lose votes as a result of how immigration has played out in Nevada?

-I think this is what the voters voted for.

I think this is what the voters voted for.

Sure there were other, other policies that voters supported.

No tax on tips was extremely popular here in Nevada, right?

Voters are going to vote with their pocketbook as well.

But I certainly think that the President doesn't lose support.

This is what the voters voted for.

This is what President Trump campaigned on.

-And when we talk about Governor Lombardo reaching that MOU with the DOJ, how does that benefit Nevadans?

-Sure.

You know, the only reason that Nevada was ever classified a sanctuary state in the first place were some of the actions of the Attorney General, who, I'll note, is adding against-- is running against Governor Lombardo right now.

I think it really benefits Nevadans.

I think it shows that Nevada is cooperative with the Trump administration, cooperative with ICE.

Clark County has shown some level of cooperation with ICE and with the administration as well.

So I think it just shows that Nevada is cooperating.

Nevada is delivering on the votes that they delivered for President Trump.

-And what about the risk of losing federal funding had Governor Lombardo not gotten that name off the list?

-Certainly.

That would certainly be a concern, and there are a lot of states and cities that you're seeing that are losing federal funding because they don't want to respond positively to the administration's actions.

-And right now, there is a bipartisan immigration bill in Congress called the Dignity Act.

Its original cosponsors include 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats.

Representative Maria Elvira Salazar is a Florida Republican, and she is leading this bipartisan group.

She said that after signing the Big Beautiful Bill, the one issue that still looms over the economy is immigration.

Let's listen to more from her now.

(Maria Elvira Salazar) We in Congress, through the BBB, we allocated $150 billion to secure the southern border.

But the truth is that we still have over 10 million people or more working in construction, hospitality, agriculture, dairies, fisheries, slaughterhouses who are undocumented but who are not criminals--human beings, invisible to the average American.

But without them, we will not have food by this Friday.

Yes, they broke the law.

But someone gave them a job because they needed those workers, workers who are still needed today.

-And Representative Susie Lee of Nevada is one of those cosponsors that I mentioned.

What do you think about this bill and its ability to get through Congress?

-The Dignity Act is an interesting one.

You have Congresswoman Salazar who introduced it who's in one of the largest Hispanic districts in the United States in the Miami area.

You've got other moderates from the Republican side, like Congressman Lawler, who's in the most D+ congressional district in the country held by a Republican.

You're seeing a group of moderates from both parties look at this from an economic perspective, right?

The argument that's being made is that these folks did not simply commit a crime by being in the country illegally and having an undocumented status or overstaying a visa or something like that, but talking about the importance of having these folks in our industries, in our farms, in our factories, in our fisheries, and I think there's certainly an argument to be made there that certainly there-- that folks, based on merit, might have some merit to stay in the country despite their undocumented status.

-When you say that it is more of the middle ground kind of Republicans and Democrats, is that going to put this at danger of passing?

-You know, this bill isn't all that towards the moderate.

I think you might see some opposition from some of the far left of the Democratic Party, because this bill still pushes heavily for finishing President Trump's border wall, pushes for more resources to the southern border, border enforcement, border security, things that some of the further left members of the Democratic Party have been pushing against.

-And Representative Salazar has talked about that as well as this is not amnesty.

This would be for temporary legal status after you have been in the U.S.

for five years.

So anyone who got here before 2021 could get that if you had no criminal record, you had been working.

Why do you think this may not pass on the Republican side?

What would the Republican opposition be?

-Sure.

I think there are some Republicans, especially on the hard line side, the more conservative side, that don't see that this is far enough, that this is not fully acting on what President Trump had campaigned on and pushed for, right, pushing for more deportations of illegal aliens, right?

I think that you might see some opposition from the conservative base on that.

-Okay.

What is the level of concern that these deportations will end up impacting the economy?

-I think there is certainly a concern, right?

This is the main concern voiced by Congresswoman Salazar and her colleagues that are pushing this bill on both sides of the aisle.

I think it's a fair concern.

There are a lot of industries that have a lot of undocumented immigrants, and I think it's fair to say that reform needs to be pushed in those industries.

And I think that's part of what this bill does.

It's a temporary thing as we start to reform it.

There's no reason that distinctly American industries are filled with undocumented immigrants.

-Do you have any idea what President Trump may be thinking about what kind of impact these deportations are having on the economy?

-Sure.

I mean, I think we've been seeing signs of economic improvement under President Trump.

We've been seeing that, you know, more Americans are taking jobs, labor workforce participation is up.

I think there's certainly a concern.

I'm sure the President is addressing that concern, and I'm sure he's going to be talking with congressional leaders, surely some of the ones who are pushing this bill.

Congresswoman Salazar has been a supporter of President Trump, so I'm sure he'll be speaking with some of his congressional allies on this bill and the potential economic impact.

-What do you think could keep him from signing this bill, should it reach his desk?

-Sure.

I mean, we'll see what the final version of a bill that looks like this would get to his desk.

The way it is now, I mean, it certainly seems like incremental change in the right direction, pushing for more border security.

I think the President would be very happy if Congress would pass more funding for the border wall, more funding for border security, more funding for ICE, more funding for DHS.

So I think the President would be very supportive of impacts like that.

It depends what changes with the bill with, certainly not amnesty, as Congresswoman Salazar has said, but more of the kind of temporary.

What does this really look like?

-What will help President Trump in the midterms?

What can he do?

-I think President-- I think voters want to see President Trump continue to gain on what President Trump campaigned on in 2024.

He campaigned on mass deportations now on the immigration issue, right?

He campaigned on the economy, right?

He is moving all of these issues down the field.

He's continuing to work on these issues and fight both with his base.

He's delivered peace in the Middle East, right?

Literally yesterday, delivered peace in the Middle East and was in Egypt and Israel freeing our hostages overseas.

I mean, there's been a lot.

There are 13 congressional seats in the country right now that are held by Democrats that President Trump won.

I think that's going to be the number one priority of national Republicans.

The Senate map looks good for the midterms for Republicans.

There's not much of an opportunity for the Republicans to lose the Senate.

The question is the House, and those 13 seats are going to be what President Trump and the team focuses on for the midterms.

-And what is the conservative perspective on the allegation that these immigration enforcement policies at the national level have impacted the tourism industry here in Las Vegas, preventing people from coming here out of fear of possibly being deported?

-I think that that fear is kind of a little bit played up, to be honest with you.

If you look at actual airline statistics, everyone who's coming from other places is coming, obviously, through the airport here in Nevada for the most part.

You look at all the airlines.

Sure, the Canadian airlines--Air Canada, Porter--their numbers are down.

Their numbers are down 20 to 30%.

But if you look, Aer Lingus has just restored their flight from Dublin direct to Las Vegas.

British Airways has just restored their flight from London to Las Vegas.

You're seeing almost every other international carriers' flight numbers up, right?

There's more interest in coming to Las Vegas.

You're seeing a little downtick in the Canadian carriers.

I don't think that there's much of an argument there that the immigration policy is affecting that.

-Steven Hilding, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you for having me.