Clinton Vows Immigration Reform At Campaign Stop In El Centro

This is KPBS Midday Edition, I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. When Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton took the stage at the Barcelona event center yesterday, it was the first time in two generations that the city hosted a visit from a presidential candidate. It's not like Imperial County couldn't use more attention. It's one of the poorest counties in California with the highest unemployment rate. What did President's get out of this high profile visit and what message did they give candidate Clinton next joining me is Mario Renteria no --. Give us a sense of what the speech was like yesterday. It was a very good speech. The local loved what she had to say and they were energetic. Have Imperial County residents felt ignored by politicians? Definitely. The last presidential candidate in 1976, when Jimmy Carter came to campaign. We've also had Ronald Reagan come, he was in the 60s when he was campaigning for Governor. Not many big politicians come our way. What are the issues that mean the most to the people of El Centro and Imperial County? I think the biggest issue is immigration. Being that we are right across the border, it's something that really touches our Latino-based. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton talked about it, about her campaign tool reform citizenship. Jobs in the economy are always a big issue in Imperial County. Those are another big issue, according to the employment development Department, we headed 20 point -- 20% rate in April, job creation is something the locals really love to talk about. How is Imperial Counties economy doing? It has been improving, slowly but surely. Even our unemployment rate is decreasing from what it was years ago. The housing market is starting to improve. Going to Council meetings, they used to sell houses every month, now they are selling them to to three times a month. It's starting to improve. What is driving this improvement? Renewable energy has come to the Imperial Valley. It's helping to improve the economy, we have solar and we are looking into geothermal. That's helping to create jobs here in Imperial Valley. It's also bringing tax dollars to our him. County that further strengthen our economy. What do the demographics of Imperial County tell us about its politics? You said immigration was a big issue, because of the large number of people of Mexican heritage. Does that also mean that there -- the county leans Democratic? A little bit more so, yes. We do have a large Democratic base. We also have a good representation of the Republican party. Where there protesters, Trump people at the speech yesterday? It was a handful of protesters. There were only a few that got into the event. Is there a strong support for the Republican presumptive nominee -- Donald Trump. From the comments I hear, the letters to our editorial section, there is. You can tell there is a large supporting for Donald Trump. Has voter turnout been a problem in Imperial County? It has from -- for several years. The last primary election in 2012, we only had it dirty 2% voter turnout. Hopefully, Clinton's campaign encourages our local voters to go out and vote. I've been speaking with Mart -- Mario Renteria.