Nevada's economy is being drained by federal mismanagement of immigration, and unless changes are made, hardworking families and local businesses across the state will continue to suffer.

Such an inhumane obsession over the raw number of arrests — rather than a calculated push to deport "the worst of the worst" — is the sort of directive one would expect from Joseph Stalin's NKVD during the Great Purge rather than American law enforcement agencies.

Sure, conservatives have long argued in support of securing the border and tightening immigration controls — but there also used to be a prevalent belief that welcoming new citizens to our nation was intrinsically tied to American exceptionalism.

The current immigration system is badly broken, creating needless human suffering while failing to serve our national interests. We need reform that balances rule of law with our highest values of human dignity, family unity and economic opportunity.

But having to fight every day and wait on court decision after court decision is not a life. This chaotic dichotomy of a path forward with the persistent threat of losing everything by the courts is the life of all DACA recipients.

During a press conference, several speakers spoke about their experiences with DACA, a program whose fate may soon be determined by an appeals court.

Slightly more than half of the poll's respondents (51 percent) said they want local and state governments in Nevada to "make it more difficult for people to move to Nevada from other states." 

Donald Trump's unlikely election to president in 2016, however, taught Republicans — or, at least, Republican primary voters, especially in Nevada — that they don't need to compromise their purity for electability. 

Rather than proposing solutions that alter immigration incentives to ensure families can safely come to our nation in an orderly and legal fashion, many within the GOP want simply to construct even more aggressive barriers to entry. 

As an immigrant who fled El Salvador with his family for a more prosperous future, I know firsthand the importance of immigration to our communities and our economy in Nevada and across the country.