(Photo: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
A suit filed against the City of Las Vegas and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could have national implications for President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort by limiting the offenses for which individuals can be held on immigration detainers under the 287(g) program.
Trump’s deportation plan relies in part on cooperation from local law enforcement agencies to detain foreign-born individuals for 48 hours beyond their scheduled release so ICE agents can take them into custody.
The suit asserts that federal law allows ICE to request detainers from local police only in arrests involving controlled substances, and that ICE is acting beyond its scope and authority by asking law enforcement agencies to hold those arrested for any other offense, with the exception of theft crimes covered by the Laken Riley Act.
Congress passed that law earlier this year. It requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain an undocumented individual who is arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.
“It would be outside of congressional authority for ICE to issue detainers,” for anything other than those offenses, says Ernest Herrera of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), who represents two Las Vegas residents who were turned over to ICE by the City of Las Vegas jail in 2018.
The plaintiffs in the Las Vegas case, Alicia Ines Moya Garay and Juan Jaime Lopez-Jimenez, were arrested for unpaid traffic tickets, kept in the Las Vegas jail beyond their scheduled release, and turned over to ICE without warrants.
“I think the law is clearly on our side, especially since the Supreme Court got rid of the Chevron Doctrine,” said Herrera.
The Chevron Doctrine, which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, held that courts, faced with an ambiguous statute, should defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of the law, as long as the interpretation was reasonable.
If U.S. District Judge Anne R. Traum agrees with the plaintiffs that ICE is exceeding its authority, the ruling could be applied to 287(g) partnerships nationally.
“We would argue that depending on which court decides on it, that it could apply nationally,” Herrera said, adding the issue of national applicability could be determined by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the case regarding Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship.
In that case, the Supreme Court is determining whether injunctions issued by lower-court judges can block executive orders nationwide.
Last week, Traum denied the federal government’s motion to dismiss four causes of action in the suit against the City of Las Vegas and ICE, including the plaintiffs’ claim that ICE is exceeding its authority via the 287(g) program, and violating the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens and immigrants from being detained without probable cause.
Attorneys for ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Freedom from imprisonment without a judicial warrant or probable cause lies at the heart of the Fourth Amendment,” says the complaint filed by Garay, Lopez-Jimenez, and Arriba Las Vegas Worker Center, which assists migrants with immigration and labor rights. City law enforcement agents, the suit says, “ignore their constitutional mandate to uphold the Constitution, choosing instead to be an uncompensated extension of and receiving direction from” ICE.
Documents obtained by MALDEF in the case reveal the city provided ICE with information for detainers for 1,680 people between Jan. 1, 2017, and Feb. 28, 2019. Of those, ICE picked up 1,139 arrestees.
“The City of Las Vegas is one of the most diverse cities in the state with one of the highest per capita immigrant populations in the country,” says the lawsuit. “Local families are put at risk every day because of City Defendants’ collusion with ICE. Defendants’ policy and practice not only violate individuals’ rights, they also undermine community safety and waste local public safety resources.”
In October 2019, a day after then-Sheriff Joe Lombardo announced the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department would no longer honor ICE detainers, the City of Las Vegas, in a tweet, said the same.
LVMPD renewed its 287(g) partnership with ICE this month, despite repeated assurances earlier from Sheriff Kevin McMahill that the department would not assist with immigration enforcement.
On Tuesday, the city asserted it has not honored an immigration detainer since 2019.
“The city of Las Vegas law enforcement and jail facilities comply with federal law,” city spokesman Jace Radke said via email Tuesday, adding the city “still assessing” LVMPD’s decision to renew its partnership.
Bliss Requa-Trautz, director of Arriba Las Vegas, counters that “through litigation and policy advocacy over the past several years, it’s been clear that the city cannot or will not differentiate between an immigration detainer and an actual legal warrant.”
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Author: Dana Gentry
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