SouthernWorldwide.com – A new Mississippi law, slated to take effect this week, grants the state’s top law enforcement agency the authority to create a registry of undocumented immigrants residing within its borders. This development has raised concerns among immigrant advocates who fear it could become a tool for targeting immigrants, aligning with President Donald Trump’s broader immigration enforcement agenda.
The legislation, effective Wednesday, empowers the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to employ “all reasonable lawful investigative means available” to ascertain the number and identities of illegal immigrants in the state. This includes collecting their names, addresses, countries of origin, and whether they are adults or children.
Furthermore, the department is authorized to document any criminal history and the status of deportation proceedings for these individuals.
The agency is also directed to share information concerning immigrants suspected of violating laws with both state and local authorities.
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While the law does not explicitly mandate or prohibit sharing this compiled database with federal immigration authorities, other sections of the bill, SB 2114, require the Department of Public Safety and county detention agencies to pursue cooperation agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
State Senator Angela Hill, a Republican and the bill’s sponsor, asserted that states have both the right and a responsibility to aid the federal government in combating illegal immigration. She contends that illegal immigration is linked to serious crimes, including human and drug trafficking.
Senator Hill characterized the new measure as “commonsense.”
“To effectively address the problems stemming from illegal immigration, we must first grasp the scope of the issue. Identifying the number and identities of illegal aliens in Mississippi is a tangible step toward better understanding the problem,” she stated.
The Mississippi law establishes an ongoing initiative to track immigrants residing in the state unlawfully for the next two years. This scope may encompass individuals who have overstayed their visas.
Immigrant advocates have voiced apprehension that the law could create significant complications in Mississippi, particularly for individuals who overstay visas, seek new forms of legal status, or move in and out of the state.
“An individual can be undocumented today, gain legal status tomorrow, lose it again the following month, and then reacquire it three months later,” Efrén Olivares, vice president of litigation and legal strategy at the National Immigration Law Center, explained to The Associated Press. The National Immigration Law Center is a nonprofit organization advocating for low-income immigrants.
“While it is practically unworkable, it is also deeply concerning, as it bears an unsettling resemblance to methods employed by other countries to create lists of specific population groups,” Olivares added.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for stricter immigration policies, emphasized the need for state officials to develop “a credible and fairly foolproof way of correctly determining someone’s immigration status.”
However, Vaughan also commented that the law “makes a lot of sense,” suggesting that it “raises the likelihood that someone’s illegal presence is going to come to the attention of federal authorities.”
According to the American Immigration Council, citing 2023 Census Bureau data, Mississippi has one of the lowest percentages of undocumented immigrants in the country, with fewer than 28,000 individuals, representing less than 1% of its population.
Victoria Francis, deputy director of state and local initiatives for the American Immigration Council, warned that the law could potentially divert law enforcement resources from public safety duties towards investigating immigrants who may be contributing to the state’s economy.
“A mandate like this invites profiling and the targeting of entire communities,” Francis told The Associated Press.
Lydia Grizzell, policy and advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, echoed these concerns, stating that the law could erode trust between law enforcement and residents.
“This increases the likelihood of individuals not reaching out to law enforcement when it’s needed – and that is contrary to the mission,” she said.
This year has seen the adoption of over 100 immigration-related laws across various states nationwide.
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States led by Republican governors have been actively supporting President Trump’s immigration enforcement initiatives. These efforts include mandating that local sheriffs enter into cooperation agreements with ICE, tightening restrictions on eligibility for public benefits, and instructing election clerks to cross-reference voter rolls with the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to identify noncitizens.
Mississippi’s new law appears to mirror an executive order issued in 2021 by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. That order directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to utilize “all lawful investigative means available” to determine the number and identities of all “illegal aliens” who had been transported from the southern border to Florida during the border crisis under the Biden administration.
In contrast, states governed by Democrats have sought to curb Trump’s immigration enforcement actions. These measures have included prohibiting cooperation pacts with ICE, barring ICE agents from wearing masks to conceal their identities, and preventing immigration arrests in sensitive locations like schools and hospitals without judicial warrants.
On the federal level, the Trump administration has intensified the enforcement of a long-standing law requiring noncitizens to register with the U.S. government.
