Las Vegas rejoins federal immigration program to aid ICE
Law enforcement officials in Las Vegas announced the city is rejoining a federal immigration program to further cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department stresses local officers will not be involved in federal immigration raids.
The announcement comes after the Trump administration named Las Vegas on its list of sanctuary cities, a designation that has since been rescinded.
Local ICE alerts already in place
Currently, Las Vegas law enforcement alerts ICE when an undocumented immigrant, accused of specific crimes, is booked or released from custody. The list of crimes includes violent offenses, DUI and theft-related charges under the Laken Riley Act, signed into law earlier this year.
Sheriff: Too many dangerous offenders released
Sheriff Kevin McMahill from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told local news outlets the department applied to participate in ICE’s 287(g) program under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows local law enforcement to help enforce federal immigration laws.
Section 287(g) allows local police to issue or act on a federal immigration warrant by keeping an inmate, suspected of being in the country illegally and arrested for criminal activity, in the Clark County Detention Center for up to two additional days. This gives ICE agents more time to take the inmate into their custody.
McMahill told local KSNV the decision was not influenced by Las Vegas previously being on the sanctuary list.
“The reason I did that, quite frankly, I was seeing too many people with very heinous crimes getting out of our jail,” McMahill said.
Those heinous crimes, according to McMahill?
“We had child pornographers being released, folks that had shot people being released,” McMahill told KLAS News. “Yesterday, we had a guy that shot at a bunch of people get released — assault with a deadly weapon — and that was also a part of the catalyst to do this that these are people that have committed very serious offenses and were in the country illegally and because of manpower issues and the timing we couldn’t turn them over to ICE.”
Critics raise civil liberties concerns
Sadmira Ramic, senior staff attorney at ACLU Nevada, spoke to KSNV News about her concerns over the city rejoining the program.
“Before their policy stated, ‘Hey,’ and they made representations to the public, ‘Hey, we are not going to be holding individuals. We’re not going to be engaged in immigration enforcement or enforcing immigration violations, which, in fact, this is what’s being done now,’” she said about Metro’s decision to join ICE’s Section 287(g) program.
Not involved in ICE roundups, sheriff says
McMahill said local law enforcement will not be helping ICE agents round up and arrest undocumented migrants during enforcement efforts.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was formerly partnered with ICE through a 287(g) agreement, which was ended in 2019 by then-Sheriff Joe Lombardo.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
