Las Vegas Mayor Shelly Berkley said she supported Las Vegas police signing an agreement to help enforce federal immigration law. 

The agreement, known as 287(g), creates a partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) where local law enforcement officers are deputized to carry out federal immigration duties. However, Berkley said that she didn’t push Sheriff Kevin McMahill one way or the other before he joined the program.

“That was up to Sheriff McMahill, and I supported his decision,” Berkley said during a Tuesday press conference. 

McMahill signed on to the partnership with ICE just one day after the City of Las Vegas was included on a now-deleted list of sanctuary jurisdictions released by the Department of Homeland Security. The designation — disputed by Berkley and Gov. Joe Lombardo — could have threatened millions in federal funding. 

Under the agreement, certain Metro officers would be allowed to hold undocumented people in custody for an additional two days so ICE could pick them up for longer-term detention. It also requires all participating Metro personnel to report encounters with individuals who assert claims of U.S. citizenship to ICE within one hour of the claim. 

Although Berkley said she didn’t directly ask McMahill to sign the 287(g) agreement, she said she had many discussions with the sheriff and supports his decision. She qualified that the partnership was essentially the same as Metro's prior policy, which stipulated that officers must notify ICE about foreign-born individuals convicted of certain crimes — ranging from assault to petty theft — during both booking and release. 

“When somebody that's here illegally is arrested and they're in jail, it's our responsibility to notify ICE that they are there and they have X number of days to pick up this person,” Berkley said. 

But the cost of the 287(g) programs can be hefty. In 2011, for example, Maricopa County, Arizona, faced a $1.3 million deficit in 2011 after implementing the program for only three months. 

Under the new agreement, Metro will be required to cover all personnel costs, including overtime. 

Berkley said that she disagreed with the labelling of Las Vegas as a sanctuary city, but that if Las Vegas was one, she would defend the city’s right to be a sanctuary city. Although the term has no legal definition, it generally refers to cities and states that extend legal protections to undocumented people, such as blocking officials from asking about immigration status.

Nevada has no such laws in place. 

“The governor, the sheriff [and] myself — we were adamant and very vocal about the fact that we aren't a sanctuary city,” Berkley said. 

Although Berkley made statements to the press, a spokesperson for the City of Las Vegas said that Berkley did not correspond directly with the Department of Homeland Security or other authorities after the sanctuary designation. She also maintained that she “doesn’t want the feds here.” 

The application to join 287(g) marks a turning point for McMahill, who previously said that Metro would only join the program if the federal government passed a law requiring them to join the program. He has also said that Metro risked losing up to $30 million in federal funding if deemed as noncompliant with immigration enforcement.