The day after Republican House members grilled four Democratic mayors, accusing them of impeding federal immigration enforcement, Mayor Shelley Berkley reiterated that Las Vegas is not a sanctuary city.
“The city of Las Vegas is not a sanctuary city,” Berkley said in response to a question during a bimonthly mayor’s press conference. “We follow federal law, and we will do everything that we are supposed to under the law in order to comply with it.”
President Donald Trump’s White House hasn’t accused Las Vegas of being one. The City Council is officially nonpartisan.
Trump — who campaigned successfully calling for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants — issued the “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” executive order on Jan. 20.
The order said his cabinet should, “to the maximum extent possible under law, evaluate and undertake any lawful actions to ensure that so-called ‘sanctuary jurisdictions,’ which seek to interfere with the lawful exercise of Federal law enforcement operations, do not receive access to Federal funds.”
He directed the heads of the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to take criminal or civil action against those jurisdictions.
Congress grills mayors
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday chastised the big-city mayors, threatening to prosecute local officials.
The hearing “highlighted how the Biden-Harris Administration created the worst border crisis in American history,” the committee wrote.
It continued: “The mayors of Chicago, Denver, New York City, and Boston refused to denounce their cities’ reckless policies that forbid their officials, including those in law enforcement and public safety roles, from sharing information with the federal government about criminal illegal aliens in local custody or transferring them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the secure confines of a custodial setting.”
The lawmakers called on Congress to evaluate funding “and ensure mayors who defy federal immigration law are held accountable,” the committee said.
The mayors countered that immigration enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government. Tasking local governments with it leads to police distrust in the community, they said.
Las Vegas defers to sheriff
“I support the sheriff and his position,” Berkley said.
She was referring to Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill, who leads the Metropolitan Police Department. Its budget is substantially funded by the city of Las Vegas and Clark County.
Metro has an informal agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Clark County Detention Center, and complies with the Laken Riley Act signed into law this year.
Any undocumented inmate booked at the jail who’s accused of a violent crime, DUI or domestic violence, or who has an immigration warrant, is reported to ICE, which then has a chance to pick them up. The Laken Riley Act expanded Metro’s list to include theft-related crimes ranging from petty theft to burglary.
The department has maintained that it’s not participating in raids or other immigration enforcement out in the community.
The city operates the Las Vegas Detention Center, which Berkley said echoes Metro’s policy.
“We have a responsibility, if someone comes into the municipal jail, to notify ICE and then it’s their responsibility to take it from there,” Berkley said. “As long as the sheriff is comfortable with that and is using the resources he has to do the job that the city of Las Vegas and the county has tasked him with, then I’m very comfortable with that.”
Metro’s collaboration with ICE is limited to the jail.
Following a court decision in 2019, Metro announced it was no longer participating in ICE’s 287 (g) program, which deputized corrections officers to conduct certain immigration enforcement tasks at the jail. The next day, the city moved to end its own 287 (g) agreement, which allows ICE to place jail holds on deportable migrants.
Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is the only Nevada jurisdiction with a formal agreement, but limited the agreement to its jail.
‘We cannot have an open border’
Berkley said she empathizes with anyone who comes to the U.S., noting that her grandparents had escaped the Holocaust by migrating to America.
“I have tremendous sympathy for people that are seeking a better life and a new life, and opportunities for their family,” she said. “And many people who have come across the border are suffering in their home country and are desperate to get out.”
She added: “However, we don’t want — we cannot have — an open border,” she said. “Obviously, that creates all sorts of challenges for our nation and for our community.”
Berkley said the city would do “everything we can to protect those that are legally here and I’ll let ICE do what they’re supposed to do, and the sheriff what he’s supposed to do.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story. Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.