LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo signed on to a statement pledging cooperation with at least part of President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to deport all illegal immigrants just two days after saying it was "too soon" to weigh in on the proposal.
The statement — issued by the Republican Governors Association — pledges the governors' assistance in deporting criminals but stops short of saying they'll support the mass deportation of all illegal immigrants, which Trump has repeatedly said is his goal.
But on Monday at a meeting of the Western Governors' Association in Las Vegas, Lombardo mostly demurred when asked directly if he'd use the Nevada National Guard to deport immigrants in the country illegally.
"The devil's in the details, right?" Lombardo said at a news conference. "It's too soon to opine on the nebulous or the unknown. A lot of things I know get promised during campaigns and the practicality of implementing those comes to bear."
After Trump's mass deportation pledge, some have questioned whether the government has the funding and the resources — including facilities, judges and Customs and Border Protection officers — to fully carry out the deportation of all immigrants in the country illegally.
Lombardo also implied at the news conference that the National Guard may be needed elsewhere.
As far as the National Guard question, the devil's in the details," he said. "We have to figure out what is the better need, which is the mission of the National Guard for the state they are assigned [to] and whether the mission takes priority within the state or to the federal picture, or the federal window.
Also at the Monday news conference, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., said her state's constitution offers privacy protections for residents.
"We'll be really clear that we will do everything that we believe is right that supports and protects the citizens and the residents of our states in a way that makes the most sense for our states, and they may be different state to state," Grisham said.
"Ditto," said Lombardo moments later.
On Wednesday, however, Lombardo, along with 25 other Republican governors, signed onto a statement from the Republican Governors Association that took a different tone when it comes to assisting with deportation.
As Republican governors, we stand united in support of President Donald Trump's unwavering commitment to make America safe again by addressing the illegal immigration crisis and deporting illegal immigrants who pose a threat to our communities and national security. Republican governors remain fully committed to supporting the Trump Administration's efforts to deport dangerous criminals, gang members, and terrorists who are in this country illegally. We understand the direct threat these criminal illegal immigrants pose to public safety and our national security, and we will do everything in our power to assist in removing them from our communities. We stand ready to utilize every tool at our disposal — whether through state law enforcement or the National Guard — to support President Trump in this vital mission.
The statement is confined, however, to criminal immigrants, rather than all immigrants in the country illegally. Trump has often discussed crimes committed by immigrants but has said he wants to deport everyone in the country illegally, regardless of criminal history. (In a recent interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Trump did say that he's open to a deal that would allow immigrants brought to the country at a young age — known as DREAMers — to stay.)
The distinction is more than semantic, according to longtime Las Vegas immigration lawyer Peter Ashman.
"The vast majority of immigrants in this country are not criminals, and, in fact, the majority of criminals in the United States are not immigrants," he said in a recent interview. "And if you go down to the courthouse on any given Monday to look at arraignments, [there are] very, very few undocumented immigrants there."
The National Institutes of Justice studied data from Texas from 2012 to 2018. They found that undocumented immigrants were arrested at half the rate of native-born citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter of the rate for property crimes.
A Northwestern University study published in March found that immigrants were consistently less likely to be incarcerated than native-born citizens.
A 2020 study published by the libertarian Cato Institute found that native-born citizens had the highest rate of criminal convictions, followed by undocumented immigrants, with legal immigrants having the lowest rate. And the liberal Brennan Center for Justice has also cast doubt on the link between immigrants and crime.
