What are they hiding? Criminal illegal immigrants have privacy rights, officials say
The Nevada Department of Corrections and the Metropolitan Police Department are withholding the names of undocumented immigrants in their custody, citing privacy concerns for inmates. But opponents of illegal immigration say that information is important to public understanding of how law enforcement is handling undocumented foreigners who commit crimes.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal filed a public records request in November asking for the names of all prison and jail inmates in the metro area with Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds and whether those inmates had committed prior felonies. The Department of Corrections released similar information in 2019 for a Review-Journal investigation that showed scores undocumented repeat offenders were released from prison only to re-offend in Nevada.
This time, however, the state agency released a list of nearly 700 inmates with all the names blacked out. The data showed that 137 of them had prior felonies before their current incarceration in a Nevada prison. Las Vegas police, meanwhile, denied the request, citing federal law and saying the department doesn’t have a responsive record.
Maria Espinoza, national director and co-founder of the The Remembrance Project, a nonprofit that highlights cases of people killed by undocumented immigrants, said the state needs to release the details of undocumented immigrants who commit crimes.
“The fact certain agencies are not being forthcoming and not being transparent is very disturbing,” she said. “These are things the taxpayers are paying for. … We’re talking about the safety of the community, and that information is very valuable to the community.”
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said his organization supports transparency of this type of information.
“This is the sort of stuff the public should know,” he said. “The consequences [of crime by undocumented immigrants] is felt in Nevada and all across the country, and we don’t know the reason they’re concealing it.”
Calls and emails to public information officers with the state Department of Corrections were not returned.
Clark County Commissioner April Becker, after seeing this Review-Journal story online, wrote on X on Thursday that she wants to get to the bottom of why the names are being withheld. She did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.
“I’ll be finding out why these names weren’t released and fighting to make the information public,” she wrote. “We deserve to know who commits crimes in our communities, especially if they are here illegally.”
Legal justification questioned
The DOC letter denying the release of the names cited “personal privacy” and justified secrecy by citing two Nevada Supreme Court rulings. The letter said the 2018 Clark County School District v. Las Vegas Review-Journal ruling determined that Nevada common law protects personal privacy interests from unrestrained disclosure under the public records act, and the 2020 Las Vegas Metro Police Dept v. Las Vegas Review-Journal decision recognized “privacy rights in a laundry list of areas.”
Review-Journal Chief Legal Officer Benjamin Lipman said the Corrections Department is not following state law.
“The law requires a citation to the specific legal authority that makes the information confidential,” he said. “Merely citing two cases that state the general proposition that privacy rights may in some instances allow information to be kept confidential without citing anything that says the actual information being sought is confidential is a blatant violation of the Nevada Public Records Act.”
The names of people convicted of crimes are clearly public information, Lipman said.
“There is nothing in the law to suggest the government can hide from the public the names of people who have been convicted,” he added.
Taxpayers pay about $35,000 a year to house an inmate, which would amount to about $24 million a year for all the inmates on the Corrections Department’s list of immigration holds.
Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said the release of this information is especially important under a Trump administration that has prioritized the deportation of criminal undocumented immigrants.
“Are state and local authorities cooperating with ICE? How many Nevada inmates face deportation, and when will they be deported?” Cook asked. “Will their victims and the taxpaying public be able to learn when they’ve been deported? And, when undocumented immigrants are newly charged with deportable crimes, will the public be able to learn in a timely fashion that a defendant is, in fact, in the country illegally? The public needs transparency to have these questions answered.”
Other agencies release information
The Review-Journal sent similar requests to Henderson, North Las Vegas and the Clark County Detention Center.
Henderson and North Las Vegas released lists of inmates who were released to ICE custody from their jails.
Las Vegas police said they do not maintain a record that indicates which people have ICE holds at the county detention center and whether they have prior felonies. The agency also cited federal confidentiality law that it says makes “information about deportable aliens who are detained confidential.” The Review-Journal is continuing to fight for that information.
People in jail are often awaiting trial, while people in state prison have been convicted of one or more offense, making the information of convicts more crucial to understanding why people who are in the country illegally can remain or return after committing crimes.
Espinoza, who said her father immigrated legally from Mexico, said public officials should be pushing to release such information instead of hiding it.
“The governor and his entire team and the state Legislature should be on this,” she said. “They should be calling out these agencies.”
The “What Are They Hiding?” column was created to educate Nevadans about transparency laws, inform readers about Review-Journal coverage being stymied by bureaucracies and shame public officials into being open with the hardworking people who pay all of government’s bills. Were you wrongly denied access to public records? Share your story with us at whataretheyhiding@reviewjournal.com.
Contact Arthur Kane at akane@reviewjournal.com and follow @ArthurMKane on Twitter. Kane is editor of the Review-Journal’s investigative team, focusing on reporting that holds leaders and agencies accountable and exposes wrongdoing.
