Clark County dropped from ICE’s list of immigration law laggards

After two straight weeks of public shaming by federal immigration authorities, Clark County was absent from this week’s report on “non-cooperative jurisdictions” published Thursday.

The county had appeared high on the list of local jurisdictions cast as not cooperating with federal immigration authorities in two previous reports issued by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Weekly reports on ICE detainer requests — requests for local jails to hold potentially deportable inmates for up to 48 hours —that local jurisdictions declined to honor are required by an executive order issued in January by President Donald Trump.

The first two reports included Clark County — and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which runs the county jail — with so-called sanctuary cities that have adopted policies against cooperating with ICE. But Las Vegas police officials have called the reports unfair, maintaining that the department has been honoring detainer requests.

Metro said Thursday that Clark County’s removal from the report was a result of Sheriff Joseph Lombardo’s trip to the nation’s capital last week. He and other police leaders met with federal officials about immigration issues, said Carla Alston, director of Metro’s public information office.

“It was a meeting to correct incorrect information,” she said. “This was the result.”

ICE had been including Clark County on its list of sanctuary jurisdictions since 2014, when the department said it would no longer hold potentially deportable inmates beyond the time they would be released after the “probable cause” period for their local charges. That decision was the result of a federal lawsuit that questioned the constitutionality of the practice.

ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday on Metro’s absence from the new report.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.