Las Vegas police to rejoin ICE program to hold undocumented immigrants already in jail: ‘I don't want them in my community anymore'
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Metro police will soon hold undocumented immigrants already in their custody and who have committed crimes for an additional 48 hours as part of an agreement with federal officials.
The 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) allows Metro officers to serve a federal warrant on an inmate and keep that person in the Clark County Detention Center for no more than two additional days.
'I don't want them in my community anymore,' LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill said about undocumented criminals already in his jail during an exclusive interview Wednesday with the 8 News Now Investigators.
'We had child pornographers being released; folks that had shot people being released,' McMahill said. '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.'
Metro applied to the program last week, McMahill said. He believed the approval was imminent.
Metro alerts ICE during booking and release for violent felonies and crimes that fall in line with the Laken Riley Act, which includes theft and shoplifting. However, ICE must obtain a warrant and pick up the inmate. The program essentially means ICE will have two additional days to pick up the inmate.
As of Tuesday, 350 inmates were ICE-notification eligible, McMahill said. In an interview earlier this year, McMahill said ICE routinely picks up about 40% of the inmates whom Metro has notified them about. He added Wednesday that ICE makes daily pickups at the jail.
'These individuals that have criminal complaints and conduct and have been convicted and/or charged, and they're being released from our jail, we're making notifications, and we're going to continue to do that,' McMahill said.
Metro will not partake in mass deportation 'roundups,' McMahill said earlier this year.
The immigration issue is personal to McMahill. A previously deported undocumented immigrant driving drunk killed LVMPD Officer Colton Pulsipher last December.
Metro police previously took part in 287(g) until 2019, when a federal court ruling ended the partnership.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed Las Vegas as a 'sanctuary jurisdiction,' though there is no city or Metro policy on the matter, and both the sheriff and Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley have publicly said otherwise. The department later removed the entire list.
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