The Mississippi House of Representatives voted 77-40 to pass House Bill 538 on Thursday, a measure that would require state and local governmental entities, agencies, employees, departments, officers and law enforcement to cooperate with the enforcement of immigration laws. Because the State already prohibits policies that would allow for sanctuary cities, there are no official sanctuary cities in Mississippi.
“I think the overwhelming majority of the people of the great state of Mississippi want law and order in this state, and if that includes immigration laws, so be it,” House Judiciary Chairman Representative Joey Hood told Mississippi Today. “We’re not going to have individuals based through counties, municipalities or law enforcement agencies that are going to hinder immigration officials.”
The bill now heads to the Senate and, if passed, would waive sovereign immunity- a legal doctrine protecting federal and state governments from being sued and would empower the state attorney general to investigate and prosecute violations of that bill.
House Democrats fiercely opposed the bill and argued that the legislation would expose local law enforcement officers to arrest if they attempted to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] from engaging in illegal behavior.
“I don’t think we really realize what we are about to do,” said Representative Bryant Clark. “We shouldn’t do that to our state employees.”
This legislation follows a visit to the State by Kristi Noem, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security [DHS, which governs ICE], on Feb. 2, 2026, whose visit was credited to talks of relief from Winter Storm Fern. This was only days before ICE’s plan to purchase a facility in Byhalia to convert it into an 8,500-bed ICE detention center was abandoned. Senator Roger Wicker posed concerns regarding infrastructure, community impact and the small community’s lack of adequate resources to the agency, prompting the DHS to look elsewhere for a facility.
