When Attorney General Aaron Ford released a 72-page set of “model immigration policies” last month, it became the latest clashing point in the likely 2026 gubernatorial race between Ford, a Democrat, and Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo.

But while Ford and Lombardo released dueling statements on social media about the meaning of the policies, immigration advocates contend that there’s much more to the legislatively commissioned, nonbinding guidelines — which are meant to provide a blueprint for public agencies asked to do voluntary immigration enforcement for the federal government.

Instead, they say the policies are a crucial step in increasing transparency by providing local governments and law enforcement agencies with detailed insight into at-times byzantine federal immigration laws and suggestions on how and when to comply with requests to enforce immigration law.

Here’s how the policies work, and how their release became so political.

How it works

In general, local governments are not required to enforce civil immigration law, which includes the apprehension and deportation of people not legally in the country who otherwise have not committed a criminal offense. 

Nevada’s law enforcement agencies are not required to enforce civil immigration detainers or administrative warrants issued by federal immigration agents, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They are required, however, to comply with criminal warrants issued by a federal or state judge, and several local law enforcement agencies actively partner with the federal government under so-called 287(g) agreements that allow for various levels of cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

One of the stated goals of the model policies is to build trust between police and the communities they serve. 

“If people in Nevada are afraid to interact with police based on fear of immigration enforcement, then our criminal justice system loses access to witnesses and victims will be deterred from reporting crimes,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement. 

Republican groups aligned with Lombardo were quick to pan the model immigration policies as turning Nevada into a “sanctuary state” — a nebulous term that generally refers to jurisdictions that proactively prohibit law enforcement and other state apparatuses from assisting the federal government with immigration enforcement. Ford denied that the policies make Nevada a “sanctuary state.” 

Creation of the model immigration policies has been in the works for years, mandated since the passage of AB376 in 2021. It originally sought to curb collaboration between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, but was gutted after facing heavy Republican opposition. 

The final bill established the Keep Nevada Working Task Force, a group that sought to bolster the state’s workforce after the COVID-19 pandemic and collaborated with the attorney general’s office to develop the model immigration policies. 

The law only gives two requirements for the policies: to “foster trust between the community and state or local law enforcement agencies” and limit to the fullest legal extent possible “the engagement of state or local law enforcement agencies with federal immigration authorities for the purpose of immigration enforcement.” The model policies are nonbinding, but agencies that don’t wish to adopt them are required to inform the attorney general’s office in writing and provide a copy of their own relevant policies on cooperating with the federal government.

When asked if agencies would have to publicly publish their policies, Ford told The Nevada Independent in a brief interview on Tuesday, “That’s not a specific requirement. That’s the best I can say.” 

The policies state that workers in local law enforcement agencies, courthouses, educational institutions and health care facilities should be disentangled as much as possible from immigration enforcement to focus on their “primary responsibilities” and limit the use of state funds on federal policy. 

Sanctuary state?

Release of the policies quickly prompted a statement from Lombardo’s office that said the executive branch is currently reviewing the model immigration policies and a pledge that “The Attorney General does not have the authority to make Nevada a sanctuary state or jurisdiction.”

According to the attorney general’s office, Nevada’s executive branch has no authority to change any of the model policies. 

But the tit-for-tat between Ford and Lombardo served as a preview of a relevant future campaign issue — immigration.

Lombardo has previously voiced support for some of Trump’s immigration platform, signing onto a letter this past December with other Republican governors saying they were “fully committed” to Trump’s deportation plan. Only a month later, the governor told Indy reporters that he doesn’t believe mass deportation is an “appropriate policy” without taking steps to first secure the southern border. 

Ford, meanwhile, has been an outspoken opponent of the Trump administration, having filed multiple lawsuits against the administration, including the proposed ban on birthright citizenship. His office has hosted several “know your rights” workshops for Nevada’s immigrant community. 

Still, Ford holds that he does not support “sanctuary state” policies.

“Make no mistake about it: AG Ford and the Office of the Attorney General do not support sanctuary for any criminal — period,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement to The Indy. 

‘Timely’

Even though the policies were finalized nearly four years after the bill’s passage, bill sponsor Assm. Selena Torres-Fossett (D-Las Vegas) called the release of the policies “timely.” She said the bill was created during the Biden administration and was a preemptive measure against President Donald Trump’s threat to crack down on immigration during his first term — something that she said he is following through with now. 

“School districts, hospitals and the institutions that are included in these policies — they are not immigration attorneys,” Torres-Fossett said in an interview. “This piece of legislation really does allow for them to have access to the information that they might need to create policies that continue to keep immigrants safe.”

Although they are not binding, Michael Kagan, a law professor at UNLV and director of the UNLV Immigration Clinic (which received a $500,000 appropriation through the 2021 bill), said the policies could create more transparency. 

Kagan said the requirement for state agencies that decide not to comply with model immigration policies to provide an explanation as to why and a copy of the policies they pursue instead is especially important, given the back-and-forth about where various public agencies — particularly police — stand on immigration enforcement. However, there is no strict deadline to provide an explanation. 

“I think you get a lot of disagreement about what police should be doing, and the model policies … give one take on how to do that,” Kagan said. 

Since Trump stepped back into office, multiple jurisdictions throughout the Silver State have signed formal agreements with ICE, as others have said they will merely communicate with the agency.

Officials from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, for example, said they will notify ICE about foreign-born individuals arrested and charged with a violent felony, domestic violence, DUI, burglary, theft, larceny, petit larceny, and/or assault of a law enforcement officer, while Lyon County said that it “will cooperate with our partnering Federal Agencies in immigration enforcement matters and events.”

Athar Haseebullah, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, previously told The Nevada Independent that informal resolutions local police departments have been issuing about immigration enforcement risk creating more confusion than formal agreements with ICE.

“This nefarious backing of cooperation is actually even worse,” he said. “What has ended up happening is none of the policies were made clear.”

According to the attorney general’s office, the model policies are intended to help law enforcement agencies to distinguish different legal routes for immigration enforcement, especially between court-issued criminal process and civil administrative notices. 

The model policies also highlight language of a 1911 state law that prohibits “peace officers from making arrests in non-criminal matters.” According to the attorney general’s office, this means that a “person’s alleged unlawful presence in the United States … is not basis for a Nevada law enforcement agency to arrest or detain the person, even if requested to do so by a federal agency.” 

That law could spell potential future legal trouble for agencies in Nevada that do otherwise, Kagan contends.