Joe Lombardo on Immigration and Enforcement: Prison Transfers to ICE, Metro's 287(g) Deal, the National Guard for ICE, and the Enforcement Money He Praised

Under Joe Lombardo, the Nevada Department of Corrections, part of the executive branch he runs, now hands every ICE detainee in its custody to federal agents, where ICE had picked up fewer than one in five before 2025, according to the policy timeline his office sent to the Justice Department in 2025. Las Vegas Metro returned to ICE's 287(g) program after talks with him, and he later agreed in writing with the Justice Department to carry out the administration's immigration agenda. He also authorized about 35 Nevada National Guard members to support ICE, a deployment extended to September 2026.

In July 2025 Lombardo praised the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including its "efforts to help secure our border"; the law puts $170.7 billion into immigration and border enforcement.

Joe Lombardo's Actions and Statements on Immigration Enforcement in Nevada

• Lombardo's Prison System Now Hands Every ICE Detainee to Federal Agents. Joe Lombardo's immigration policy timeline, sent to the Justice Department and reported by the Nevada Independent on August 23, 2025, says the Nevada Department of Corrections "now releases 100 percent of ICE detainees to federal authorities," where ICE had picked up less than 20 percent of them before 2025. A March 2025 corrections memo says the department screens every new inmate for citizenship status at intake and passes ICE information on inmates born abroad or thought not to be citizens. Nevada immigration arrests rose by nearly 300 percent in the first six months of 2025 compared with the same months of 2024, and the Prison Policy Initiative found that nearly 73 percent of ICE arrests in Nevada happen in jails and other lock-ups.
• Las Vegas Metro Rejoined ICE's 287(g) Program After Talks With Lombardo in June 2025. Las Vegas Metro rejoined a 287(g) partnership with ICE in June 2025 "following discussions with the governor," according to Joe Lombardo's own policy timeline, and in August 2025 he authorized Metro to use a nearly $900,000 Homeland Security grant for border crisis response and enforcement. The agreement lets Metro hold people up to 48 hours past their scheduled release so ICE can take them, and Metro had received 957 requests for help from ICE by September 1, 2025.
• Lombardo Signed an Agreement With Trump's Justice Department in September 2025 to Carry Out Its Immigration Agenda. In September 2025, Joe Lombardo signed an agreement with the Justice Department "to comply with the Trump administration's immigration agenda," the Nevada Independent reported; the Nevada Current reported that Nevada came off the federal sanctuary list after he "agreed to fully cooperate with federal immigration initiatives." "ICE has ramped up operations in Las Vegas, they are arresting more people, and there are a lot of people in a growing detained population," Michael Kagan, who runs the UNLV law school's immigration clinic, told the Nevada Independent in January 2026.
• Lombardo Authorized the Nevada National Guard to Support ICE, a Deployment Extended to September 2026. On August 8, 2025, Joe Lombardo's office confirmed he was authorizing the Nevada National Guard to assist ICE "in a temporary, administrative capacity," and the Guard said about 35 members would give ICE "clerical, administrative and logistical support"; the deployment, first set to end November 15, 2025, was extended until September 2026, and Guard members "have been told not to interact with ICE detainees or do public-facing work," the Nevada Independent reported in January 2026. The ACLU of Nevada said the Guard's help would "clear up more ICE officers to go after people on the ground," FOX5 reported. Nevada's ICE detention population grew by more than 30 percent from September to November 2025.
• Lombardo Ordered Nevada's Office for New Americans to Drop Immigrant Legal-Aid Partners. In 2023, Joe Lombardo required the state Office for New Americans to "terminate problematic political partnerships" with programs that gave legal-assistance referrals to undocumented people, and the office ended its constituent services for immigrants with unemployment and immigration-status problems, according to his timeline as reported on August 23, 2025. Immigrants lost the state office's help with unemployment and immigration-status problems, and after the federal sanctuary label in August 2025 the office also removed the legal resources section of its website.
• Lombardo Vetoed Prenatal and Delivery Coverage for Pregnant Immigrants in June 2023. On June 16, 2023, Joe Lombardo vetoed SB419, which would have paid for prenatal, labor and delivery coverage for uninsured pregnant people who do not qualify for Medicaid, regardless of immigration status, with $1.7 million over two years. Because of the veto, pregnant Nevadans who are shut out of Medicaid because of their immigration status did not gain the prenatal coverage the bill would have added.
• Lombardo Praised the Law That Gave Immigration Enforcement $170.7 Billion, in July 2025. Joe Lombardo posted on July 3, 2025, the day the House gave the bill final passage: "Nevadans should be excited about the potential impacts of tax cuts, investments in small businesses and American manufacturing, and efforts to help secure our border." That statement of support covers the law's enforcement money. The law directs $170.7 billion to immigration and border enforcement, including $45 billion for ICE detention. Twenty-nine people died in ICE custody from October 2025 to mid-April 2026, already a record for a fiscal year.
• The Law Lombardo Praised Set a Medicaid Cutoff for About 5,000 Lawfully Present Immigrants in Nevada. The law Joe Lombardo praised also ends Medicaid eligibility for many refugees, asylees and other lawfully present immigrants starting October 1, 2026. About 5,000 of them in Nevada were set to lose Medicaid that day, the Nevada Current reported in July 2026, and the Congressional Budget Office expects the law's immigrant restrictions to leave 1.4 million lawfully present immigrants uninsured nationwide by 2034.

ICE Arrests and Detention in Nevada During Joe Lombardo's Cooperation With ICE

• ICE arrests in Nevada more than quadrupled. Through June 2025, ICE arrested about 48 people a week in Nevada, more than four times the average week in the last 16 months of the Biden administration, a Nevada Independent analysis of public records found; each arrest can remove a parent or a worker from a Nevada household.
• Nevada's main ICE detention center holds far more people than its contract allows. The Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump held 461 ICE detainees a day in November 2025, though its ICE contract allows no more than 250, and officials have raised concerns about detainees' access to medical care and lawyers there. The Washoe County Jail's ICE population rose from 16 to 46 a day over the same two months.
• Latino-owned businesses in Nevada closed as arrests climbed. As immigration arrests surged in 2025, several Latino-owned businesses in Nevada shut down, the Nevada Independent reported, taking jobs and neighborhood services with them.

Frequently Asked Questions About Joe Lombardo on Immigration and enforcement

Last updated: 2026-10-26

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