Can Las Vegas sheriff disobey Trump’s executive order on migrants crackdown?

HOUSTON, United States

President Donald Trump has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration with migrant roundups assisted by local law enforcement, but one US sheriff is saying “no.”

“That’s not my job,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) said in an interview with the 8 News Now television station.

McMahill’s defiance of Trump’s order doubles down on his department’s stance on assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during the president’s first term in office.

The department’s policy states that “although Nevada peace officers have the authority to assist in enforcing federal laws, LVMPD officers will not enforce immigration violations.”

But it will share criminal intelligence it has collected with federal authorities.

“I have too much to do,” explained McMahill. “I don’t intend to change that policy any time soon.”

On the converse, Frederick County, Maryland Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said he is all-in on helping with Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Jenkins oversees the largest county in the state of Nevada and said in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) that he has been assisting ICE for more than 16 years.

“We have actually roughly just over 2,000 deportations through the program,” Jenkins told NPR. “They were all arrested and convicted of crimes.”

“I saw the beginning of an increase in crimes being committed by persons in this country illegally (and) I saw the benefits of partnering with ICE,” he added.

The bottom line is that local law enforcement agencies do not have any obligation to assist federal immigration officials, depending on what the state and local laws dictate, except for sharing criminal records and fingerprint databases.

Ultimately, it is up to each department to choose whether it would help the feds and to what extent it will share resources.

A prime example that shows both ends of the spectrum can be seen in the state of California, where different local law enforcement agencies are sitting on opposite sides of the fence.

Some California sheriffs have pledged not to cooperate with federal authorities based on state or county laws and said they will “forbid immigration agents from using county personnel, property or databases without a federal warrant,” according to the nonprofit news agency, CalMatters, which received responses from 27 of the 58 sheriff departments they contacted.

Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall was one of several law enforcement leaders who told CalMatters that his department has to balance its duties with the need for cooperation from frightened immigrant communities that will shun all law enforcement for fear of deportation.

“I’ve got in-laws through my children calling me because they’re concerned, but let’s look at the ability to actually enforce this crap,” said Kendall.

“Hell, I’ve got 50 deputies and I can barely keep a lid on crime in a county of 90,000,” he said. “How are these guys coming out here with all of this ‘We’re gonna deport 10 million people’ or something. No, that’s ridiculous. It’s not gonna happen.”

“If they (ICE) want to go out and deport all the criminals, knock yourselves out.”

Other sheriffs told CalMatters they would follow California law, which prevents direct cooperation with ICE officials but allows them to use their jail, websites and fingerprint databases.

“Several state leaders would prefer we do not have any communication with ICE,” said Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni. “ICE may access jail bookings through our public website and fingerprint information put into the national database to identify any incarcerated persons of interest to them.”

Trump’s new border czar, Tom Homan, has publicly admonished any department not willing to cooperate with the crackdown and threatened that they will suffer the consequences.

“Sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don’t want — more agents in the communities, more people arrested, more collaterals arrested. So, that’s a game they want to play? Game on,” Homan told Fox News.

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