State of Union guests serve as political props for White House, Congress

WASHINGTON — A State of the Union speech has historically been a platform for a president to lay out his priorities for the nation, but the event has served to highlight political messages from both the White House and Congress.

To that end, President Donald Trump invited guests to illustrate his call for rebuilding the nation’s military and to honor first responders from natural disasters and those who have paid the price for crimes committed by immigrant gang members.

Democrats, too, put the spotlight on the president’s policies, giving seats in the gallery to undocumented immigrants who face deportation if a deal on the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program is not made, along with long-standing legal immigrants who would be forced to leave with the elimination of the temporary protective status.

One seat was left vacant in memory of the 58 people killed on Oct. 1 on the Las Vegas Strip, the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said that despite the shooting, House Republicans have failed to act on legislative measures to curb senseless killings.

“My guest seat is for the mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, teachers, students, entrepreneurs, law enforcement and others who didn’t make it home that night,” Titus said.

Meanwhile, the president’s decision to eliminate temporary protected status for 200,000 people in the United States from El Salvador prompted Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Rep. Jacky Rosen, both Nevada Democrats, to invite Las Vegas residents whose lives would be disrupted.

Flor de Marie Campos came to the U.S. in 2000 and, along with her husband, owns two restaurants in Las Vegas. They have two U.S.-born children. The parents would be forced to leave under Trump’s Jan. 8 directive.

Similarly, Nery Martinez, who fled El Salvador in the 1990s, is a bar apprentice at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He and his wife have two children, who are U.S. citizens, and would be separated from their children if their TPS status were revoked.

Martinez said TPS “recipients like myself have worked hard to build our lives here so that our children do not have to experience the hardships we have had to face in our home countries.”

Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., invited Astrid Silva of Las Vegas, an undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. from Mexico at age 4 and gave a rebuttal to the president’s speech to Congress last year. She has earned degrees from the College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State College and is founder of DREAM Big Vegas, which advocates for undocumented immigrants and families.

Trump also made a statement on his plans to bolster immigration enforcement, inviting guests who lost loved ones to violent gangs.

Elizabeth Alvarado, Robert Mickens, Evelyn Rodriguez and Freddy Cuevas are the parents of Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, close friends who were slain in September 2016 after being beaten and stabbed by members of MS-13, a gang with ties to El Salvador.

Also invited was agent C.J. Martinez, who works with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and whose work has resulted in the arrest of more than 100 MS-13 gang members.

The president also invited first responders who sacrificed their well-being during hurricanes in Texas and Florida and fought wildfires in California.

Some lawmakers took a more muted tone. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., invited his wife, Lynne, to take his guest seat in the chamber.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.