by Michael Lyle, Nevada Current

When asked whether he would consider authorizing the Nevada National Guard to aid President-elect Donald Trump in mass deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, Gov. Joe Lombardo said “the devil’s in the details.”

Speaking during a Western Governors’ Association press conference in Las Vegas Monday, Lombardo said “we have to figure out what is the better need” for the state’s National Guard and “whether the mission takes priority within the state or to the federal picture or the federal windows, that’s the best way we can answer.”

Trump vowed mass deportation on “day one” of his second term and has said he intends to use the National Guard, local law enforcement, and possibly the military to carry out his proposal.

In addition to a human toll, economists and immigrant groups have warned of a potential economic hit if Trump deports an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, including 189,000 who live in Nevada.  

“It’s too soon to opine on the nebulous or the unknown,” Lombardo said Monday when asked about Trump’s proposal. “A lot of things, I know, get promised during campaigns, and then the practicality of implementing those comes to bear.” 

Trump has selected former ICE director Tom Homan as ‘border czar.” Homan has warned that entire mixed-status families could be deported regardless of citizenship.

During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press over the weekend, Trump reiterated his plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants along with children even if they are U.S. citizens. 

“I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back,” Trump said. 

He also pledged to end birthright citizenship, which is granted by the 14th Amendment, and said he was open to separate proposals working with Dreamers.

Lombardo, along with governors of New Mexico, Colorado, Hawaii, Wyoming and Idaho, met Monday at the Western Governors Association conference in Southern Nevada to discuss policy resolutions related to workforce development, air quality, compensatory mitigation, energy and health care.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico said that every governor has to adapt to policies proposed by the administration. 

Lujan Grisham said that while she can’t dictate how other states should respond to any of Trump’s proposals, including on mass deportation, each governor “will do everything…that supports and protects the citizens and residents of our states in a way that makes the most sense for our states.”

She added that the governors’ association plans to work on ideas that address the economic needs of their respective states. For her, she said that includes protecting mixed status families.

“Our constitution is very clear about privacy,” Lujan Grisham added. “It is very clear about what we can and cannot do, and what we believe is the federal government’s responsibility and their limitations.”

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