Sen. Yvanna Cancela, D-Las Vegas, on Monday introduced legislation that would prohibit Nevada law enforcement agencies from helping detain and arrest immigrants.
Senate Bill 223 prohibits not only state and local law enforcement but also school and campus police from detaining immigrants or transferring anyone to federal immigration authorities. The exception in the bill is when there is an independent finding of probable cause or an arrest warrant for that person.
Agencies also would be barred from providing personal information about a person including the home and work address or date of release from custody.
They also would be prohibited from giving federal authorities access to some one in custody unless there was a judicial warrant and the person is represented by counsel.
The law also would bar those authorities from creating a database or providing information from a database to anyone for the purpose of immigration enforcement.
It would further bar agencies in the state from employing an officer who performs the functions of an immigration officer.
The bill doesn’t prohibit responding to federal immigration authorities who ask for information about a person’s criminal history.
Cancela was joined by all 10 of the other Democrats in the Senate in backing the bill as well as a number of Assembly Democrats.
The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee for study.