Henderson officials pulled a multi-million-dollar upgrade proposal for a regional training facility off Tuesday's city council agenda, hours before it was set for a 2 p.m. discussion, after learning the item included a potential shared building requested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The withdrawn item concerned $2.6 million in upgrades and general repairs at the Eldorado Valley Regional Public Safety Training Facility, located along Black Hills Drive and U.S. Highway 95.
According to KLAS 8 News Now, documents show ICE had inquired about developing land at the facility, and the proposed upgrade package included a potential shared on-site building tied to that request. A city spokesperson told the station the agenda item was placed without proper vetting, and Henderson withdrew it because the matter was premature and lacked sufficient information for meaningful consideration. The city said it will hold its scheduled 2 p.m. meeting at the Westgate Conference Room at City Hall Tuesday, but the withdrawn item will not be discussed there.
A Shared Facility With Strict Ground Rules
The Eldorado Valley site is not solely Henderson's to modify. It exists because Boulder City donated 240 acres of land more than a decade ago to create a shared training ground for Henderson, Boulder City, and other regional emergency agencies, according to the office of U.S. Representative Dina Titus. That interlocal history matters here: per the station's report, the existing agreement between Henderson and Boulder City does not permit the arrangement ICE was proposing, meaning the item will not move forward under the current joint agreement as written.
The facility has drawn federal attention before. Back in October 2022, Titus requested $1.08 million in Community Project Funding for the Henderson Police Department to expand Eldorado Valley with a scenario-based training village, simulators, and upgraded firing ranges, a push detailed by the Representative Dina Titus Press Office. That earlier funding request illustrates how the site has long been a target for physical expansion, well before ICE's more recent interest surfaced.
Timing Collides With Scrutiny of Henderson's ICE Jail Contract
The withdrawn agenda item lands amid mounting scrutiny of Henderson's existing relationship with federal immigration authorities. Since 2010, the city has held an intergovernmental agreement allowing the Henderson Detention Center to serve as a holding facility for ICE civil detainees, a decade-plus arrangement detailed by KSNV News 3 Las Vegas. That relationship has become increasingly contested, both financially and politically, in the months leading up to this week's withdrawn proposal.
On the financial side, Henderson generated $3.5 million in fiscal year 2025 from its ICE detention agreement — under which ICE pays $135 per detainee daily — down sharply from $7.3 million collected in 2020, according to The Nevada Independent. The average daily detainee count at the city jail fell from roughly 189 in 2020 to about 90 by late 2025. In May, Henderson City Manager Stephanie Garcia-Vause told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the city was conducting a comprehensive cost review of the ICE agreement, noting municipal accounting had never previously itemized ICE detainee expenses separately from general local inmates.
Community Pressure And Regional Legal Fights
Community groups, including the Nevada Immigrant Coalition, mobilized public campaigns throughout early 2026 urging the Henderson City Council to formally terminate its detention collaboration with ICE, with residents offering mixed testimony during council public comment periods, per KSNV. That local organizing has unfolded alongside broader legal challenges to immigration enforcement partnerships across Southern Nevada.
In October 2025, the ACLU of Nevada filed a state lawsuit challenging the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's 287(g) agreement with ICE, arguing that local police participation in federal civil immigration enforcement violates Nevada law, according to the ACLU of Nevada. Neighboring Nye County took a different path, terminating its own $2 million jail contract with ICE in November 2024 over escalating costs and detainee mistreatment allegations, leaving the privately run Nevada Southern Detention Center as the county's primary ICE holding hub, The Nevada Independent has reported separately.
Noncitizens detained in local Nevada facilities are frequently transferred out of state for federal processing, an operation overseen regionally by ICE's Salt Lake City Field Office, which manages civil immigration enforcement across Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. Hoodline has previously detailed one such transfer case involving a noncitizen arrested in Clark County before being moved through that federal pipeline.
What Happens Next
Under Nevada's Open Meeting Law, NRS 241.030, presiding officers of local public bodies are explicitly authorized to delay, combine, or remove agenda items at any point before or during a meeting, according to the City of Henderson — the statutory basis for Tuesday's last-minute withdrawal. For now, the ICE-linked proposal at Eldorado Valley remains stalled, with no timeline given for when, or whether, a revised version might return to a future council agenda. This remains a developing story.
