Las Vegas laborers challenging ICE immigration detainers could impact Trump deportation plans

A federal judge is allowing a case to move forward in which Las Vegas laborers challenge the city’s use of immigration detainers to hold individuals past the dates they were intended to be released — a case that could have major implications for President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

On June 13, U.S. District Court Judge Anne E. Traum denied a request from federal officials to remove Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the lawsuit, as it was listed as a defendant alongside the City of Las Vegas.

The civil rights lawsuit dates back to January 2020 after the arrest and transfer to ICE custody of Alicia Ines Moya Garay and Juan Jaime Lopez-Jimenez, two laborers represented by the Arriba Las Vegas Worker Center and its lawyers. Both were arrested by the City of Las Vegas Department Of Public Safety (DPS), kept in jail after their scheduled release and then transferred over to ICE.

This type of collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement agencies typically falls under the 287(g) Program, which allows for local agencies to identify and process immigrants who are currently detained under suspicion of criminal charges. 

It allows local law enforcement to hold a person for no more than 48 hours past their ordered release date, giving ICE time to investigate. But attorneys argue that the city treated the detainers as mandatory and delayed the release of those being held for longer than their scheduled times so that ICE could pick them up.

Traum’s refusal to remove ICE as a defendant allows the Fourth Amendment claim against the agency, as well as claims that the policy violates Due Process and that detainers exceed statutory authority, to move forward.

The outcome of the case could impact the 287(g) Program and the manner in which local agencies collaborate with immigration enforcement efforts.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department renewed its 287(g) agreement on June 16. Four other agencies in Nevada collaborate with ICE under the program, eight in Arizona and one in New Mexico, the majority of which are sheriff’s departments.

In a statement, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and F. Travis Buchanan, Esq. & Associates, PLLC of Las Vegas — who represent Arriba Las Vegas Workers Center — celebrated Traum’s decision.

“Our Constitution and laws guarantee certain rights to all persons, including immigrants, regardless of their status; that includes the rights at issue in this case,” said Thomas Saenz, MALDEF President and General Counsel, in the statement. “There is simply no acceptable justification for not according and guaranteeing rights to immigrants that are afforded to all persons under the law."

The win comes at a time when the Trump administration carries out mass deportation efforts, with a 3,000-a-day quota that has targeted major cities like Los Angeles, Santa Ana and Phoenix, Arizona.

“This decision affirms what we know, what we believe, and what the court had already previously affirmed,” said Bliss Requa-Trautz, director of Arriba Las Vegas Workers Center, in the statement. “We have the right to sue ICE. We hold on to hope that both justice and the courts will prevail in the face of tyranny. Now more than ever, we have a moral imperative to take action to halt ICE’s lawless disruption of workplaces, our economy, our homes and our lives.”