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The 2016Democratic presidential candidates say they support immigration reform, but some immigrants wonder if they can actually deliver.

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Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off in a sharp Democratic debate hosted by CNN. Here are the best attack moments from the candidates. VPC

Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, and Hillary Rodham Clinton laugh during the CNN Democratic presidential debate Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, in Las Vegas.(Photo: John Locher/Associated Press)

LAS VEGASThe leading 2016Democratic presidential candidates support the big picture of comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants in the United States, and support preserving or even expanding President Barack Obama's deferred-deportation programs.

The differences between Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, her main, liberal challenger Bernie Sanders and lesser-known rivals Martin O'Malley,Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb often are degrees,shades and subtleties, which might help explainwhy the topic didn't come up until more than an hour into their first debate on Tuesday night.

Unlike the Republican primary race, which has been characterized by calls for more border security and at-times harsh rhetoric aimed at Mexican immigrants, the Democrats sparred over questions on the other side of the issue, such as whether guest-worker programs would exploit foreign labor andwhether "Obamacare" should be opened up to undocumented immigrants and their children.

O'Malley, a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor, has proposed doing so.

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Clinton agrees. "I want to open up the opportunity for immigrants to be able to buy into the exchanges under the Affordable Care Act," she said. "I think to go beyond that, as I understand what Governor O'Malley has recommended, so that they would get the same subsidies ... it would be very difficult to administer" at least without comprehensive immigration reform, which Congress has tried and failed to pass for a decade.

But members of the influential andmajority-Hispanic Culinary Unionwatching the debate wanted to hear more from the candidates: How would they succeed in persuading Congress to enact far-reaching immigration reformswhenObama has failed?

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O'Malley said immigration reform has been gridlocked because of "old thinking" he heard from other candidates on the stage namely Clinton.O'Malley has emerged asan outspoken champion of immigrants, particularly the unaccompanied minors from Central America who surged across the border in 2014. As governor, O'Malley signed Maryland's version of the Dream Act.

"I would go further than President Obama has on DACA and DAPA," O'Malley said, referring to the deferred-action on deportation programs that Obama created using executive action. "We are a nation of immigrants. We are made stronger by immigrants. ... I am for a generous, compassionate America that says we're all in this together."

Those programs have been blockedby legal action by Texas and two dozen other states, including Arizona.

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The Democratic candidates shared the stage in a two-hour debate hosted by CNN and Facebook at the Wynn Las Vegas resort and casinoon the Las Vegas Strip.

The debate's location was significant: not only is Nevada an influential early state in the nomination process, it is a considered a swing-state battleground for the general election. And immigration issues loom large over the hospitality industry that is crucial to the Las Vegas economy, and because Nevada proportionately has one of the largest undocumented populations.

At the headquarters of the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226,about 200 members watched the debate on two large screen TVs in the unions main hall in the shadow of the Stratosphere Casino, just north of The Strip. The union isan influential force in Democratic politics, and thelocal has55,000 members, 56 percent of them Latinos, and many of them immigrants. The members represent 95 percent of casino workers on the strip and downtown. Theywork as housekeepers, cooks, bartenders, food servers andbell men.

Some Latino union members who attended the watch party were glad to hear the Democratic candidates say they support comprehensive immigration reforms that include a pathway to citizenship, which clashed with the positions on immigration taken by Republicans candidates.

Butsome Latino union members remained skeptical. They pointed out that Obama also promised to deliver comprehensive immigration reform when he ran for office but failed to deliver.

Culinary workers watch the debate

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Its exactly what we want to hear, but thats all it is right now. Weve heard this before with the last time we were supporting President Obama, said Efrain Becerra, 38, who works in room service at Harrahs Casino.

Becerra, an immigrant from Mexico and a legal resident of the U.S., said he was disappointed that none of the candidates offered any concrete steps on how they would get Congress to pass immigration reform, which will take support from both Republicans and Democrats.

I was hoping at least one of them to break off and say this is how we are going to get there, Becerra said. We want to see if anyone has an action plan. That is really what we are looking for. We dont want to hear them say we support immigration reform. I want to hear them say how you think we are going to get to one. And that hasnt happened yet.

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Miguel Martinez, 54, a casino porter at the Bellagio, agreed.

They say a lot of things, but right now these are just words, said Martinez, an immigrant from Mexico who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen.

However,Francisco Rufino Parra, 39, a cook at the Paris Hotel, said he knows candidates make promises they dont keep, but he believes they are sincere this time after Democrats took a beating in the 2014 mid-term elections.

I really think that this time they really think that this issue needs to be dealt with because of what happened last time. It didnt get dealt with and nobody got out and voted. So it hurts them, Rufino Parra said.

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The Democratic field's support of immigration reform gives voters a sharp contrast with the Republicans, whose front-runner, celebrity billionaire Donald Trump, has called Mexican immigrants "rapists" and drug-runners and has vowed to construct a border wall at Mexico's expense and try to undo the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants who are born on U.S. soil.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, one of 15 Republicans still in the GOP race, at one point tweeted: "The Democrat plan: Give amnesty AND#ObamaCareto illegal immigrants.#DemDebate"

Clinton, the party's front-runner who lost the 2008 nomination to Obama, this year has embraced the immigration issue in a big way.

Earlier this year, in appearances in North Las Vegas and in Las Vegas, Clinton vowed to push for comprehensive reform that includes"a real path to citizenship" for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants who have settled in the United States. And if Capitol Hill failed to cooperate, she would use her executive powers as president to go even further than Obama in shielding millions of immigrants from deportation.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont, backs a pathway to citizenship and supported versions of the Dream Act, which would have benefited young immigrants brought to the United States as children,diverges from comprehensiveimmigration reform over the issue of guest or temporary foreign workers.

Sandersopposed a 2007 bipartisan comprehensive immigration co-authored by then-U.S. Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and he was asked about it at the debate.

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"I voted against that piece of legislation because it had guest-worker provisions in it, which the Southern Poverty Law Center talked about being semi-slavery," Sanders said. "Guest workers are coming, they're working under terrible conditions, but if they stand up for their rights, they're thrown out of the country. I wasnot the the only progressive to vote against that legislation for that reason."

Despite reservations about a continuing flow of foreign workers, Sanders in 2013 ultimately voted for the so-called "Gang of Eight" bipartisan immigration bill, which was ignored by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and never became law.

"My deal right now, and always has been, is that when you have 11 million undocumented people in this country, we need comprehensive immigration reform," Sanders said. "We need a path toward citizenship. We need to take people out of the shadows."

Chafee was a liberal Republican while representing Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate; he also voted in 2006 for a major immigration-reform bill and against the Secure Fence Act. He was elected Rhode Island governor as an independent, and his administration was marked by immigrant friendly policies.

Fifth candidate Jim Webb, a conservative Democrat and former Secretary of the Navy,is more of an exception; as a U.S. senator from Virginia, he also opposed the Kyl-Kennedycomprehensive billand generally did not have what reform advocates considera pro-immigrant record.

Asked about opening up "Obamacare" to undocumented immigrants, Webb said, "I wouldn't have a problem with that."

During the debate, Webb also brought up an unsuccessfulamendment he offered during the 2007 immigration-reform deliberations that would have given a pathway to citizenship to people who have "put down their roots" and met a series of standards. However, reform backers have saidWebb's amendment was not pro-immigrant andactually would have dramatically curtailed the number of immigrants who could have gotten legalization.

"We need a comprehensive reform and we need to be able to define our borders," Webb said.

Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota, said jobs, health care, and education are the most important issues for Latino voters. But immigration is a gateway issue because many have mixed families families where some members are U.S. citizens and others are undocumented immigrants.

Therefore, many Latinos want to hear candidates views on immigration before they are ready to listen to their views on other key issues, he said.

The issue of immigration is one of respect and trust, he said.

Monterroso said Latino voters want to first hear how candidates treat the issue of immigration and then how they plan to address the undocumented immigrants in the country.

The nonpartisan Mi Famila Vota is backed by the Service Employees International Union and works to increase the number of Latino voters in the U.S.

He said Latinos hold the key to the White House because they have the power to swing three crucial states, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Earlier in the day, Mi Familia Vota workers stood outside Marianas Supermarket in southeast Las Vegaswith clipboard asking shoppers if they were registered to vote.

The organizations goal is to register 80,000 to 90,000 new Latino voters by 2016 in six states:Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Texas. The goal is part of a national push to turn out 15 million Latino voters in 2016, up from about 12 million in 2012.

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