The Mississippi law aims to track immigrants who are in the state illegally, a move that immigrant advocates warn could complicate things for people who overstay visas, apply for new forms of legal status, and move in and out of the state.
The law authorizes an ongoing effort to keep track of immigrants illegally in the state for the next two years, which could include people who overstay visas. Immigrant advocates are concerned that this could lead to profiling and turning entire communities into targets.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at a nonprofit think tank, said state officials must come up with a credible and fairly foolproof way of correctly determining someone's immigration status. However, she argued that the law "makes a lot of sense" and raises the likelihood that someone's illegal presence will come to the attention of federal authorities.
Mississippi has one of the country's smallest percentages of illegal immigrants, with fewer than 28,000 people, which amounts to less than 1% of its population. However, immigrant advocates warn that the law has the potential to redirect law enforcement resources away from protecting the public in favor of investigating immigrants who may be contributing to the economy.
More than 100 immigration-related laws have been adopted in states across the country this year. Republican-led states have sought to support immigration crackdowns, while blue states have attempted to limit immigration raids. At the federal level, the enforcement of a decades-old law that requires noncitizens to register with the U.S. government has increased.
Immigrant advocates warn that the complex and ever-changing nature of immigration status could lead to confusion and mistrust between law enforcement and residents. "You can be undocumented today, and then have status tomorrow, and then lose it again next month, and then regain it three months from now," one advocate said.
The law is similar to a 2021 executive order by a Republican governor that directed the state's law enforcement agency to use all lawful investigative means to determine the number and identities of "illegal aliens" who had been transported from the nation's southwest border to the state during the border crisis under the Biden administration.
Immigrant advocates are concerned that the law could lead to increased tensions between law enforcement and residents, particularly if people feel that they are being targeted or profiled. "A mandate like this invites profiling and turning entire communities into targets," one advocate said.
