In Nevada, the effort is targeting Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo as he seeks re-election in what is expected to be a highly competitive race in the battleground state, which Trump carried in 2024.

Increased immigration arrests and anti-immigration sentiments under the Trump administration have dampened this year’s Hispanic heritage festivities.

Filed Monday, the ACLU lawsuit contends that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s partnership with ICE, known as 287(g), violates a legal doctrine that does not allow local agencies to exercise any powers unless specifically authorized by the Legislature.

The family — as well as some legal experts — contend that Lopez Gomez’s case highlights ICE’s lack of transparency on detainee whereabouts and their safety. Although many aspects about his case are not atypical — such as the manner of his arrest — the rare video footage and his daughter’s testimony shed light on what conditions can be like for ICE detainees in an increasingly tense political landscape.

UNR officials told The Nevada Independent in a Monday statement that they “are currently reviewing the letter and will respond appropriately through the proper legal and administrative channels.” They also said that they “remain committed to fostering an inclusive, supportive, and respectful campus environment for all of our students.”

The agreement, which was signed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office last week and announced by the DOJ on Friday, stipulates that Nevada will continue to use the state’s national guard.

International students' representation remains strong at UNR and UNLV, as colleges nationwide worry about declining international enrollment

At its peak this fiscal year, the center had exceeded its ICE capacity by more than 200 at 462, making it among the 10 most-overcrowded immigration facilities out of the nation's 180 ICE detention centers.

Health care providers have brought back telehealth visits as ramped-up immigration enforcement drives patients without legal status deeper into the shadows.

Although no place in Nevada identifies as “a sanctuary jurisdiction”, the immigration-focused attacks on Ford highlight both the murkiness of the “sanctuary” label and the shifting opinion on state roles in immigration enforcement throughout Ford’s decade-plus in elected office.

The 10-page timeline, shared exclusively with The Nevada Independent, reveals a variety of previously unreported actions taken by the Lombardo administration to crack down on people in the state illegally.

The freshly released data — based on national immigration statistics — shows that the number of people in the United States illegally surged to an all-time high of 14 million in 2023, a major increase that still fell well short of estimates from President Donald Trump and some immigration critics who say that number is closer to 20 million.

The designation has made Nevada colleges eligible for grants exclusive to Hispanic-Serving Institutions, such as a nearly $3 million, five-year “Math Map” grant for the College of Southern Nevada aimed at helping students succeed in college math.

Critics worry the policy will allow for more subjective views of what is anti-American and allow an officer's personal bias to cloud his or her judgment.

President Donald Trump issued an order to exclude immigrants who are in the United States illegally from the U.S. Census Bureau last week. Experts say that could impact how federal aid is distributed to Nevada.

In the Thursday lawsuit, the ACLU said the DMV had failed to turn over correspondence between the agency and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in response to multiple public records requests since February 2025. After sending a formal demand letter through the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, the Nevada DMV turned over heavily redacted and incomplete documents.

It’s unclear if the Office for New Americans is the reason for the label. Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office has previously pushed back against the sanctuary designation and said they have repeatedly reached out to the Department of Justice.

Such a deployment of troops — whose responsibilities typically include responding to natural disasters or helping with overseas missions — marks a drastic escalation of their prior use as it relates to immigration enforcement. Using the national guard often hinges on the explicit consent of a state’s governor, and the extent of their work in assisting ICE is decided by each state’s governor.

A statement provided by the office of Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), who is a member of the Senate Travel and Tourism Caucus, said “travel bonds will cause significant harm to the already-hurting travel and tourism economy in Nevada and across the country."

The designation could have massive implications in Nevada, which has one of the highest shares of undocumented people in the nation. A recent executive order directed the Justice Department to “identify appropriate Federal funds to sanctuary jurisdictions, including grants and contracts, for suspension or termination.”