CARSON CITY — The Nevada Legislature is examining a system that would give undocumented parents more control over who cares for their children if they are deported during the ongoing mass deportation operations under President Donald Trump’s administration.

This measure would help ensure children have continuity of care with trusted guardians selected by their parents, rather than potentially ending up in foster care or other uncertain arrangements when families are separated through immigration enforcement.

Assembly Bill 460 — or the Family Unity Support Act — was put forth by members of the Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus, Assembly member Cecelia Gonzalez, D-Las Vegas, and state Sen. Fabian Donate, D-Las Vegas. Gonzalez, the caucus chair, had outlined the legislation as a priority at the start of the session, formally introducing it Monday and presenting at its first hearing Thursday before the Assembly Judiciary committee.

The bill has been characterized as “critical child welfare” legislation by the caucus. It aims to strengthen guardianship procedures for families facing uncertain futures under the current administration by simplifying the guardianship nomination process for minors and eliminating age restrictions that prevent young guardians from accessing support services.

“A lot of times people talk about immigration — ‘immigration’s federal, we can’t do anything.’ That’s not true,” Gonzalez told the Sun. “And I think that this bill is a testament to that, that as lawmakers, we have a duty to protect our most vulnerable, which is children whose parents are unfortunately facing deportation.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced last week it made over 32,800 arrests in Trump’s initial 50 days in office, contrasting it with the total of 33,242 at-large arrests reported under former President Joe Biden in 2024.

Trump has fulfilled his campaign pledge by invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a wartime measure not used since World War II. This law allows for expedited detention or removal of citizens from nations designated as “enemies.” His executive order specified the law would target Venezuelan gang members, though the action is currently facing significant legal challenges in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

This bill wouldn’t interfere with the president’s agenda.

“This doesn’t give a pathway to immigration. This isn’t saying that ICE can’t do their business,” Gonzalez said. “This has nothing to do with that. What this is about is protecting our children when this separation happens, and how ... we, as lawmakers, mitigate that harm as much as possible.”

The crafting of AB 460 included discussions with the Department of Health and Human Services and the office of Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat who issued an executive order in January tasking a team to explore harm-reduction efforts for children experiencing family separation due to deportations. But the most important part in the process came from constituents themselves, who pitched the idea ahead of the session.

“Individuals were coming to us with this solution, and so that’s why we’re putting that bill forward,” Donate told committee members. “It’s not a situation where the reverse, we’re trying to get folks to under stand this legislation. It was quite the opposite.”

The legislation leverages the Nevada Lockbox, an electronic registry hosted on the secretary of state’s website that stores digital copies of all documents submitted by registrants. Through this system, parents and guardians could proactively designate a trusted guardian for their child by completing and filing a nomination form online.

The secretary of state’s office testified Thursday in support of the bill and expressed excitement to expand the Nevada Lockbox’s services.

Current law presumes that temporary guardianship is in the best interest for the minor if the parent is unavailable, and AB 460 adds the additional presumption that it’s also in the best interest for the child if one or more parents are unavailable due to a federal immigration order.

“When a parent is taken away, their child can be left in legal limbo, often with no clear plan for who will take care of
them,” Gonzalez said at the hearing. “Some end up in foster care, unnecessarily, placing additional strains on our already-burdened child welfare system; others face disruptions in their education, their health care and their emotional well-being, making it harder for them to succeed.”

There have been 1,377 youths enter the foster care system since January. Their average length of stay from the fiscal years 2020 through 2024 was 20 months statewide, with rural regions experiencing the longest rate of two years.

Gonzalez said she knows trust in the government is low for many, with community members raising the question: “If the state or the federal government is ripping my family apart, what makes you think that I’m going to then go to the state or the government to ask for help?”

It’s that type of conversation that made crafting this bill a delicate process and, now, Gonzalez says the path forward is ensuring her caucus is putting in maximum effort to ensure constituents are educated on what’s happening.

“I think that it will help alleviate some of those fears when parents know that they have access to this tool to help them prepare,” Gonzalez said. I think it will become part of the ‘prepare for deportation’ conversation that, unfortunately, our real communities are having right now.”

There was no vote, and no opposition testimony Thursday. Gonzalez said she was hopeful that Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo would sign off on this legislation if it landed on his desk, since she views this as separate from the wider debates surrounding immigration.

“This is about Nevada children that are left here with potentially no one to take care of them,” Gonzalez said. “That could potentially end up in foster care, that could potentially continue to burden the state in terms of resources if they do end up in foster care.”

haajrah.gilani@gmgvegas.com / 702990-8923 / @haajrahgilani