Gov. Joe Lombardo. (Photo: Jeniffer Solis/Nevada Current)
In agreeing to deploy the Nevada National Guard to help carry out the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, Gov. Joe Lombardo is “turning Nevadans against Nevadans,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Dina Titus.
Titus was among several Nevadans who expressed harsh reactions to Lombardo’s decision.
Lombardo’s office told the Nevada Independent Friday that about two dozen Nevada National Guard personnel will be providing “administrative” assistance to U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Defense Department late last month authorized several states, all with Republican governors, to deploy National Guard assistance with mass deportation efforts. The DOD statement said National Guard personnel would provide “case management, transportation and logistical support, and clerical support for the in- and out-processing” of undocumented people at ICE detention facilities.
The DOD statement noted the federal government would pay for National Guard assistance.
Lombardo is the latest Republican governor to agree to the Trump administration’s overture seeking National Guard support for ICE activities.
Several states (including Florida, Louisiana, South Dakota, Tennesee, Idaho, South Carolina, and Wyoming) have so far announced or confirmed National Guard personnel will be accordingly called up, with several others poised to join them.
ICE’s tactics, which have included masked men apprehending people off the streets in unmarked cars, and detaining people with no criminal records and U.S. citizens, have been met with a barrage of criticism and scrutiny.
Immigration has consistently been Trump’s strongest issue in polling over the years. But a Gallup poll last month found 35% of respondents approving of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 62% disapproved.
At least one Republican governor has declined to authorize the National Guard.
A spokesperson for Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said due to “concern for the tactics, and disruption that some of those tactics are causing, in workplaces and communities,” the Vermont National Guard would not be called up to help ICE.
Concern about tactics and disruption were similarly cited by Nevadans who blasted Lombardo’s decision.
“The Nevada National Guard’s mission is to protect us, not sow more fear in our communities by doing Trump’s dirty work,” Titus said Friday on X.
The Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus issued a statement Friday evening saying Lombardo “has chosen Trump over Nevada.”
“He is not protecting our communities, he is helping to tear them apart,” said Democratic Assemblymember Cecilia Gonzalez, NLLC caucus chair.
“Mass deportations,” the NLCC statement continued, “will devastate Nevada’s families, our economy, and our reputation. Tourists will be scared away, small businesses will lose workers, and neighborhoods will be militarized. Children will fear going to school. Families will live in constant terror.”
The state “deserves leaders who will stand up to Washington when it threatens our values, not roll over and hand them the keys to our state,” the NLCC statement added.
Saying Nevada Republicans “have moved so far right they’re unrecognizable,” Democratic state Sen. Fabian Doñate noted that Lombardo’s most recent Republican predecessor, Gov. Brian Sandoval, ruled out calling the National Guard to help round up undocumented people when Trump made a similar request during his first administration.
The “Trump-Lombardo agenda has fractured families and already negatively impacted Nevada’s tourism-dependent economy,” said the Nevada Immigration Coalition in a statement responding to Lombardo’s decision to deploy the National Guard.
“It’s shameful that Lombardo has bent the knee to Trump,” the statement added.
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