Las Vegas, Nevada will now become a sanctuary city for criminal illegal aliens after the city’s police department announced they will no longer cooperate with federal immigration officials following pressure from open borders group the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo announced Wednesday that his police department will end their cooperation with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), known as the 287(g) agreement, whereby criminal illegal aliens are turned over to ICE agents for arrest and deportation.

Lombardo blamed a recent ruling by the Central District of California for the city’s new sanctuary status. In that ruling, a federal judge stated that states like Nevada without specific immigration statutes do not have the authority to hold illegal aliens in police custody for civil immigration violations.

“I am optimistic that this change will not hinder LVMPD’s ability to fight violent crime” Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said in a statement. “While the ruling can be seen as a setback, I am determined that through cooperation with our federal partners the goal of removing the worst of the worst can still be accomplished.”

Lombardo said the Las Vegas Metro Police Department would “continue to work with ICE” at a nearby detention center to remove violent criminal illegal aliens.

The decision to end Las Vegas’s cooperation with ICE comes after the ACLU — funded by billionaire George Soros — put pressure on the police department to end their cooperation with federal immigration officials, claiming holding criminal illegal aliens on ICE detainers was a violation of the law.

As Breitbart News reported, about 1-in-14 Nevada inmates are illegal aliens, with about 1,000 illegal aliens in prison for crimes in the state. Nearly half of these 1,000 illegal aliens in Nevada prisons have been convicted of violent crimes.

For example, 150 of the 1,000 illegal aliens in Nevada prisons have been convicted of murder, manslaughter, or attempted murder, as well as 320 illegal aliens who have been convicted of sexual assault, including 240 child sex offenders.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.