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FILE – Yaritza Herrera, left, a young mother in central Mississippi, speaks about her concerns regarding legislative proposals affecting immigrants and migrants, as Loida Ventura Paz of the Mississippi Immigrants’ Rights Alliance translates from Spanish to English, during a news briefing before entering the Mississippi Capitol and lobbying lawmakers about those proposals, in Jackson, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023.<\/p>\n
Rogelio V. Solis\/AP Photo\/Rogelio V. Solis<\/p>\n
FILE – The Mississippi Capitol is seen in Jackson, Miss., on July 6, 2020.<\/p>\n
Rogelio V. Solis\/AP Photo\/Rogelio V. Solis<\/p>\n
FILE – A group of immigrants attend a news conference held by the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance regarding legislative proposals affecting immigrants and migrants in Mississippi, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023, at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss.<\/p>\n
Rogelio V. Solis\/AP Photo\/Rogelio V. Solis<\/p>\n
A new Mississippi law will authorize the state’s top law enforcement agency to compile a list of all immigrants illegally living in the state.<\/p>\n
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What’s to be done with that information is a bit open-ended. But the law set to take effect Wednesday is sparking alarm among immigrant advocates, who fear it could become a new tactic to target immigrants in conjunction with President Donald Trump’s plan to deport millions of people lacking legal approval to live in the U.S.<\/p>\n
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\n The law<\/a> says the state Department of Public Safety \u201cmay use all reasonable lawful investigative means available\u201d to determine the number and identities of all \u201cillegal aliens\u201d in Mississippi. That includes collecting their names, addresses, country of origin and whether they are an adult or minor. It also includes noting any criminal history and the date, location and status of deportation proceedings.<\/p>\n The department is directed to share information on those suspected of violating laws with state and local authorities. The measure neither requires nor prohibits the database from being shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n Republican state Sen. Angela Hill, who sponsored the measure, said states have a right and obligation to assist the U.S. government in discouraging illegal immigration, which she said facilitates crimes such as human and drug trafficking.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The new law \u201cseems like commonsense to me,\u201d Hill said. \u201cIn order to address the problems caused by illegal immigration, we need to understand the magnitude of the problem. Identifying the number and identity of illegal aliens in Mississippi is a concrete way to better understand the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Immigration laws are proliferating in states<\/p>\n Nationwide, states already have enacted more than 100 immigration-related laws this year, according to an Associated Press tally.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In Republican-led states, those measures generally have aligned with Trump’s agenda by requiring local sheriffs to sign cooperative agreements with ICE, reinforcing eligibility restrictions for public benefits and directing election clerks to check voter rolls against the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system in an attempt to flag noncitizens.<\/p>\n Democratic-led states generally have pushed back against Trump with new laws banning cooperative pacts with ICE, forbidding ICE tactics like wearing masks and restricting immigration enforcement actions in schools, hospitals and other sensitive locations without judicial warrants.<\/p>\n The closest thing to Mississippi’s new law appears to be a 2021 executive order<\/a> by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. That measure directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to \u201cuse all lawful investigative means available\u201d to determine the number and identities of all \u201cillegal aliens\u201d who had been transported from the nation’s southwest border to Florida.<\/p>\n The Florida agency did not respond to an AP request for information about the results of the executive order.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n