A new Nevada law gives families who may get split up because of a deportation order a chance to choose a temporary guardian for their child.

Assembly Bill 540 was signed into law last week and is already in effect. It allows a parent or guardian of a minor to nominate another person to be their court-appointed guardian if no parent is around because of a federal immigration order.

Assemblymember Cecelia González, D-Las Vegas, said the bill came out of listening sessions with the Latino community before the beginning of the 83rd legislative session, which ended earlier this month. She said some community members were nervous about what would happen if they were deported, but their children with citizenship or legal status stayed in the country.

“We came up with this bill to make sure that the most vulnerable, which would be these children of undocumented parents — what do we do to make sure they’re not falling through the cracks?” González said Tuesday.

Before the law was passed, guardianship was most often sorted out when a loved one or friend petitioned the court for guardianship after a separation already occurred, said Cristian Gonzalez Perez, the supervising attorney at the nonprofit advocacy group Make the Road Nevada. Temporary guardianship also exists for six month periods through a less formal agreement that does not require court approval and instead can be set between the parents and guardian.

The new law follows a similar process available in adult guardianship cases. Gonzalez Perez said it allows people act proactively.

“You can avoid issues where, say, you have a really involved family, and they all want to try to petition for the guardianship,” he said. “To avoid squabbles between family members, the court can now look at to see who the parents prefer to be the main guardian.”

AB 540 passed unanimously in the Assembly and 16-4 in the state Senate. Republican Sens. Carrie Buck, John Ellison, Ira Hansen and Robin Titus opposed, and Democrat Melanie Scheible was absent from the vote.

During the May 31 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Hansen said he thought the existing law was sufficient.

”We already have this in law,” he said before the committee vote. “This is political theater, trying to make the efforts to enforce immigration laws into something way beyond what they’re attempting to do.”

The law includes a form for the parents to submit with nominations, which could be added to the Nevada Lockbox, an electronic registry run by the Secretary of State.

González said she was conscious that some people in that situation may be afraid to interact with the government for fear of it impacting their immigration case or speeding up a deportation order.

“I hope that people utilize it, but I’m also aware of when a government is tearing your family apart, you’re not going to go ask them for help,” González said. “I think it’s going to take a lot of education on our end, as Latino elected officials and just as trusted messengers of our community to really educate the community about how you can utilize this and how this is another tool in the toolbox in the event that that unfortunate day comes.”

Gonzalez Perez said the new law could lead to a decrease in temporary guardianships, which are sometimes recommended at community sessions that go over immigration processes and rights. He encouraged people to not be afraid of the state government running the lockbox and court-appointed guardianship process.

“Instead of having that in place, you can then have the nomination ahead of time, which will just who’s going to be the nominee, rather than having something informally in place that might not be necessary at the moment,” he said. 

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.