A Closer Look at LVMPD's Policy On Cooperation With ICE

There's some good, and there's some room for improvement

Yesterday I noted that Sheriff Kevin McMahill referred to a policy on when Las Vegas Metro contacts ICE about people taken into custody, but that this policy was hard to find. Well, today they posted it on Facebook:

It is good that Metro released the policy. I would gently urge them to improve their website so these and other policies are easier to find. Now that we can read the actual text, I have some additional comments.

It is EXTREMELY GOOD that the policy explicitly says that LVMPD will not delay the release of a person without a judicial warrant. That means not holding people in jail under so-called ICE detainers, which are not issued by courts. This policy was the result of a hard fought battle by the Nevada Immigrant Coalition with then Sheriff Joe Lombardo during the first Trump Administration.

Self-promotion warning: That struggle over ICE detainers in Las Vegas is a major subject in my book, The Battle to Stay in America. If you buy the book, you get timely and accessible reading material that may open your mind, and I get almost enough money in royalties to buy a coffee. Win-win.

Back to the LVMPD Policy.

Yesterday I offered some reasons why Sheriff McMahill should reconsider contacting ICE at least with first time DUI arrests and DV arrests. I won’t repeat what I said yesterday but there are some important downsides to doing that.

Now that I can read the policy, I want to add two additional points.

First, the policy applies to any “foreign-born individual.” That’s one in five residents of Clark County. Most or many of whom are US citizens. Consider revising that.

Let me make this personal. My kids are adopted from Ethiopia. They are foreign-born. Knock on wood, neither has been arrested or booked into the Clark County Detention Center. But I am asking Sheriff McMahill: Don’t report my kids to ICE. And don’t have a policy that may scare even US citizens who were born elsewhere and make our city their home.

If LVMPD is to contact ICE at all (and there’s good reason to doubt if there’s any public safety gain in doing do at all), I would suggest revising the policy to apply only when LVMPD has reason to know that the individual is not a US citizen. At least.

Second, a legal quibble. The policy asserts that “Nevada peace officers have the authority to assist in enforcing federal laws.” Hold up. That gets a little complicated. Can Metro officers enforce federal telecommunications regulations? How about college financial aid? Or audit someone’s federal tax returns? Or clean air laws? There’s a big difference here between criminal and civil matters under federal law. And it’s important, because immigration laws are mostly civil. That is, the tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants living in Las Vegas are committing no crime.