Mississippi makes illegal entry a state crime and orders county jails to work with ICE

A person in the country illegally who is caught entering Mississippi from another country outside a lawful port of entry commits a misdemeanor, a lower-level crime. The minimum sentence is six months in prison, according to the bill summary the Wire read. The law also adds prison time for people in the country illegally who are convicted of other state crimes with a possible sentence of 12 months or more. The summary puts the add-on at two years or more for a nonviolent crime and three to five years for a violent or sex crime; Magnolia Tribune reported the violent-crime add-on as at least five years.

Every county that runs a jail had to make a reasonable attempt to sign a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, by Oct. 1, 2026. A 287(g) agreement lets local officers perform some immigration enforcement under ICE supervision. Counties that have not signed must report to the Department of Public Safety every three months on why, and the attorney general can sue to force compliance.

The Department of Public Safety must assign agents to immigration enforcement and seek its own 287(g) agreement within 120 days of July 1. Two companion laws passed the same day, according to the bill histories. HB 538 requires every state and local agency and public college to honor ICE detainers, requests to hold a person for immigration agents, and voids any sanctuary policy, a local rule that limits cooperation with immigration agents. SB 2322 makes out-of-state driver’s licenses issued without proof of lawful presence invalid in Mississippi.

Sen. Angela Burks Hill, a Republican who sponsored two of the three bills, said lawmakers were ‘putting some teeth’ in immigration laws, Magnolia Tribune reported. The Tribune wrote that when the ICE cooperation bill was introduced in mid-February, fewer than ten Mississippi localities had 287(g) agreements, and that by the time it wrote there were nearly 30.

HB 538 extends Mississippi’s existing ban on sanctuary policies to law enforcement agencies, the Tribune reported.

Hill and Sen. Joseph Seymour sponsored SB 2114; Rep. Lee Yancey, a Republican, sponsored HB 538. All three bills went through conference committees, small groups from both chambers that settle one version, and Gov. Tate Reeves signed them April 8, according to the bill histories. Democrats, by and large, opposed each bill, and several Republicans questioned the reason and intent of some measures, the Tribune reported.

Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, a Democrat, said the state would do better to fund schools and health care. Sen. David Blount, a Democrat, called the license bill ‘a bad bill on so many fronts.’ The ACLU of Mississippi argued the original bill set no probable cause standard for an arrest and would lead to profiling of citizens. Its policy and advocacy manager, Lydia Grizzell, told the Tribune she could not confirm or deny whether the group would sue.

The Wire could not find a fiscal note, the Legislature’s own estimate of what a bill will cost, for any of the three bills. Democrats argued the plan leaves counties on the hook for jailing people held for immigration violations, Mississippi Today reported. The Wire could not find a published price for the DPS agents.

The Wire’s read: for an immigrant family, the cost is risk: a traffic stop that becomes an ICE referral, as the ACLU put it, and a license that may no longer be valid here.

The Wire’s read: if you are a citizen, little changes on the surface, though the ACLU argues profiling will reach citizens too. If you drive on an out-of-state license issued without proof of lawful presence, it is no longer valid here, and officers must cite you and refer you to ICE.

If you work for a city, a county, a public college or the state, your agency must cooperate with ICE requests, and the attorney general can take it to court if it does not. Asylum, protection for people fleeing danger, and DACA approvals dated 2012 through 2021, a federal program for some people brought here as children, are defenses to the entry charge, according to the summary.

The law covers every county that runs a jail, so the Oct. 1 deadline applied in Hinds County; the Wire could not find whether the county sought an agreement or filed the required report. Jackson’s police, Hinds County government and Jackson State University, a public university, all fall under HB 538’s cooperation rules.

The quarterly reports counties owe DPS, which will show who signed with ICE and who did not. DPS’s own 287(g) agreement is due within 120 days of July 1, which falls at the end of October.

A lawsuit: when the Tribune reported, the ACLU said it could not confirm or deny one, and the Wire did not search for later filings. And July 1, 2028, when SB 2114 repeals itself unless the Legislature renews it.