By Dana Gentry, Nevada Current
This piece was originally published in the Nevada Current.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada is challenging the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to assist the federal agency by holding individuals in custody beyond their release. Nevada’s cooperation with federal agents violates state law, is eroding the integrity of the judicial system, and is hurting tourism, the ACLU alleges.
“This isn’t intended to disparage LVMPD,” ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah said Monday at a news conference announcing the legal action against Metro and Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill. He suggests Metro acquiesced to the federal government because of President Donald Trump’s “administration’s perpetual threats against municipalities, local governments and state governments.”
Metro’s 287(g) agreement with ICE, named for a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act, allows police to issue civil immigration warrants and detain individuals up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release so that federal agents may take them into custody. The agreement violates Nevada law, according to the lawsuit, because it was not condoned by state lawmakers.
Nevada is a Dillon’s Rule state, Haseebullah noted, meaning “if the Nevada Legislature does not grant authority for the local agency to act, the agency cannot do that action.”
State law provides that county jails may house prisoners at the request of the federal government, “but only upon payment of ‘all actual and reasonably necessary costs’ of such confinement,” the suit says, adding even if the term ‘prisoner’ referred to someone with a civil immigration infraction, Metro’s agreement with ICE violates Dillon’s Rule, because it requires Metro to cover all associated costs.
The suit was filed on behalf of Sergio Morais-Hechavarria, who was found guilty of attempted possession of a stolen vehicle, a gross misdemeanor. He was sentenced by Judge Tara Newberry Clark to an inpatient treatment facility for substance abuse and mental health, and upon completion, to outpatient treatment. Instead, he is being held in the Clark County Detention Center.
“The unlawful hold, caused by ICE’s 287(g) agreement with LVMPD, has trapped him in indefinite detention, directly obstructing a lawful court order issued by a Nevada judge,” the ACLU said in a news release. The filing asks a court to lift the hold and order Metro to end its agreement.
The suit, Haseebullah said, is another ACLU has “had to file because of this administration’s desire to create as much instability as they can within our communities.”
He says he expects the case to land before the Nevada Supreme Court.
“We’d love to get the proper outcome at the District Court level, but I imagine this will go up,” he said at the news conference. “We need a substantive ruling to know whether or not Nevada municipalities or local law enforcement agencies have the ability to act without approval from the state that funds them in large part.”
McMahill, who long maintained Metro would not assist federal agents with immigration enforcement, entered into a 287(g) Memorandum of Agreement with ICE on June 16 of this year, according to the lawsuit, “after the federal government idiotically labeled Las Vegas a ‘sanctuary city’ without even defining ‘sanctuary city,’ and forced Nevada taxpayers to cover the cost of ICE’s work…” Haseebullah said. An exhibit attached to the suit reveals that as of Sept. 1, LVMPD received 957 requests for assistance from ICE this year.
“In Nevada, sheriffs and political subdivisions, such as LVMPD, have no existence or powers except by grant of Nevada’s Legislature,” says the ACLU’s pleading.
“I recognize the tough position that the sheriff’s been put in, that the Mayor of the city of Las Vegas has been put in when they signed an agreement,” Haseebullah noted. “We recognize the decisions made by this administration don’t come with any sort of intellectual honesty.”
The sanctuary designation, he noted, is a “legal misnomer” that is bereft of common definition.
Nevada was removed from the federal list of sanctuary designations last month after Gov. Joe Lombardo agreed to fully cooperate with federal immigration initiatives.
In 2019, then-Sheriff Lombardo suspended Metro’s 287(g) agreement with ICE after a federal court ruled that ICE detainers could be honored only in states that permitted arrests for civil immigration violations. Nevada was not among those states.
Lombardo, however, informally honored provisions of the agreement after he announced its suspension.
Metro declined to comment on pending litigation.
