The GOP governor also said mass deportation plans are too resource intensive, and that the state would likely have to scrap services if federal funds are cut.

Gov. Joe Lombardo said he supports stricter immigration reform but raised concerns about how resource-intensive President Donald Trump’s idea of mass deportations would be, and said the state would likely have to cut services if the Trump administration slashes federal funding.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Nevada Independent CEO Jon Ralston on Tuesday, the Republican governor was largely defensive of Trump, while saying he supported deploying the Nevada National Guard to the southern border and said that vaccines should be a “personal choice.”

The more than 90-minutes long IndyTalks discussion at the National Automobile Museum in Reno came in the second week of this year’s legislative session and about one month after Lombardo’s State of the State address, during which he struck a largely conciliatory tone with legislative Democrats (who have majorities in both legislative chambers) after a contentious end to the 2023 session. Lombardo is up for re-election in 2026 and plans to run again.

The event also comes one week after Lombardo’s office resolved a $335 million structural deficit in his originally proposed budget by using more than $520 million of one-shot appropriations, including for state-funded prekindergarten, that will not be automatically baked into future budgets.

He acknowledged Tuesday that there were many errors with the original budget submitted to lawmakers, but defended his staff from criticism about the deficit. 

Lombardo also touted the rollout of the state’s new finance system, while confirming that payroll issues (which stem from the original system) will persist until a new human resources system replaces it this summer. 

He also pushed for changing the deadline to receive mail ballots — currently at four days post-Election Day, initially instituted during the pandemic — as a way to minimize the perception of election fraud and reiterated his push for a gubernatorial line-item veto — this time in the context of housing bills that he vetoed in the 2023 session.

Read the rest of this article, which was shared with Noticiero Móvil, over at The Nevada Independent. This story was reported by Eric Neugeboren, Isabella Aldrete, Tabitha Mueller and originally published on February 12, 2025.