Sen. Jacky Rosen: 'If you're a criminal, you should be held accountable — period'

Last year’s election proved that Nevada continues to be a complicated state, electing Republican Donald Trump president while choosing to keep Democrat Jacky Rosen in the U.S. Senate. With that in mind, City Cast Las Vegas co-host Dayvid Figler spoke to Sen. Rosen about her record of bipartisanship and how she's reaching across the aisle to support new legislation. The following is an abbreviated segment from the interview, edited for brevity and clarity.

You voted for the Laken Riley Act, which mandates the detention of undocumented migrants who are even just accused of petty crimes like shoplifting. Nevada has the highest percentage of undocumented folks in our workforce, so how is this bill good for us? How do you justify voting for it?

“Well, I can tell you that if you're a criminal, you should be held accountable — period. If you're here, you're undocumented, you've committed a crime, we need to keep Nevada safe. We need to keep our community safe. We do know that at the southern border, people have been taking advantage of transnational gangs, terrorists, and the like.

”We tried very hard to make this bill a better bill … Trump has already been talking about mass deportations in the first … two or three days in office, right? … This is horrific. We do not want to see this anywhere. You can see throughout history, anytime this has been done, a lot of innocent people are hurt and we don't want to see that happen. So I'm going to focus more on Trump's horrific mass deportation executive orders and see what we can do there.”

You’re co-sponsoring the CONSTRUCTS Act (with Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn) that aims to get more people into construction jobs. Is there anything that could be done now to help Las Vegans who are struggling with the cost of housing?

“We have corporate investors who are coming to Nevada, buying up all the homes. Sometimes there's a whole block or two blocks owned by corporate investors. That's fine, but if they try to price gouge people either on a sale or rent, we have a bill, the HOME Act, that holds them accountable. The fine they pay goes back into a bucket for affordable housing.”

Let's talk about the bill you co-sponsored with Republican Senator Ted Cruz. The No Tax On Tips Act. Did you make sure there were some safeguards in there so that CEOs and other people who make lots and lots of money aren’t going to take advantage of this?

“They cannot declare their whole salary as a tip. Elon Musk cannot say his whole salary is a tip … This is about bringing relief for workers, people working hard, getting up every damn day going to work. Their salaries are not guaranteed. One day's a good day, one day's not. You don't know. They need to have that relief and put that money back in their pockets. I saw Elon Musk on that stage (with Donald Trump on Inauguration Day). He should be paying his fair share.”