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Adriano Espaillat won the 13th Congressional seat in New York City on Tuesday to became the first formerly undocumented immigrant, as well as the first Dominican-American, to be elected to U.S. Congress.
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Espaillat's victory comes at the same time that Catherine Cortez Masto won the Nevada Senate race to become the first-ever Latina elected to the U.S. Senate.
Espaillat, a former New York state senator, declared that his presence in Congress would send a "strong message against the intolerance that's being spewed by the Trumps of the world." He added that he looks forward to confronting House Republicans who are looking to roll back the Obama administration's executive orders granting temporary legal status to thousands of Latino migrants. "How will they feel knowing that I have the same vote as they have on the floor of Congress?" he said. "I would love to see what the reaction is."
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Espaillat was brought to the U.S. at the age of nine in 1964, just before the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic which was meant to restore a right-wing military dictatorship. Before his family finally won legal status, Espaillat remembers being warned by his grandmother to be careful when he went out. In the neighborhood, he said, "there was a level of fear ... that Immigration (enforcement) would come in, at any time."
Masto, a former Nevada Attorney General and granddaughter of a Mexican immigrant, beat Republican candidate Joe Heck, who had flip-flopped throughout the campaign on his support for Donald Trump. Heck´s candidacy was heavily supported by out-of-state money, including from the ultra-conservative Koch Brothers.
Masto is expected to play a key role during the Senate confirmation hearings for Donald Trump´s eventual nominee to the vacant Supreme Court seat.
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