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A third of Mississippi school districts are behind on submitting completed annual financial audits to the state Department of Education.

Without that information, state education officials are in the dark about current finances at 47 of Mississippi’s 138 public school districts, including any pending financial emergencies.

State Education Department leaders hope to crack down on schools with late audits in the near future, agency officials said Thursday during a state Board of Education meeting. They introduced a plan that would impose stricter sanctions on delinquent districts, including withholding funds as punishment. 

Audits are how the state Education Department monitors its schools’ finances. Districts are required to hire accounting firms approved by the state auditor’s office to perform these annual audits, which it approves.

But in 2011, the state auditor’s office lost a significant number of its staff, education officials said. While the auditor’s office caught up on audit reviews, schools had up to four years to submit late audits without being docked on their state accountability scores, two more years than before. 

Districts also received extensions to complete their audits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadline reverted back to March during the 2022-23 school year, and many districts missed it because of the earlier due date and staff shortages at accounting firms.

The state Board of Education held districts harmless for violations that school year, but previous violations still applied and accumulated toward the districts’ records. 

So the audits have snowballed. 

“It’s just a bad situation,” State Superintendent Lance Evans told Mississippi Today this week. “We have fewer auditing firms than we had, and districts have to have the same audits done every year, and it’s just …  it’s turned into an issue. Something’s gotta be addressed.”

The pile-up can mask emergencies, such as the financial situation in Okolona that led to a state takeover last month.

In late October, Okolona Municipal Separate School District officials contacted the state Department of Education because the district did not have enough money to meet the November payroll. Education Department officials discovered that the district hadn’t had a financial audit since 2021 and had been outspending since fiscal year 2023-24. 

At an emergency meeting in November, the state Board of Education voted to take over the district, dissolve its school board and replace its superintendent. So far, the agency has loaned $1.5 million of its school district emergency fund to Okolona and dismissed 19 staff members, including teachers. The high school has absorbed the middle school. 

At the Thursday meeting, Board of Education president Matt Miller called it an “atrocious situation.”

“The adults in the room did not act like adults,” he said. “We need to make sure you’re getting your audits done. School districts cannot function without the financial piece.”

Education officials proposed a tiered process to address the situation. After the agency identifies a missing audit, the district has time to explain why it hasn’t submitted the complete information. From that point, if the district doesn’t have a sufficient response or remains noncompliant, the state Education Department would escalate sanctions. As a last resort, department officials would suspend funding to the district. 

The Commission on School Accreditation must sign off on the proposed policy changes before the state board can approve them.

Miller emphasized that the proposed policy change is a board directive, and the state Department of Education is not an “enemy” of school districts. Instead, he said, the proposed policy is an effort to avoid future takeovers because the state’s funds are limited — the school emergency relief fund is a few million dollars. 

“The department is very in tune with the fact that it’s not like districts are walking around not wanting to have their audits done,” Evans said. “We are very sensitive to the fact that it’s a shared problem … and we’re trying to help them work through it.”

Delvin Francisco Rodriguez, a 39-year old Nicaraguan man being detained by immigration authorities, has died in a Natchez, Mississippi hospital. 

In the months leading up to his death on Dec. 14, Rodriguez had been held in the Adams County Correctional Center, which is run by Core Civic Inc. 

Rodriguez is one of four immigrants who have died in ICE custody within a four-day period from Dec. 12 to Dec. 15. A spokesperson for ICE did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication of this story, and the warden’s office in the Adams County Correctional Center did not respond to a voicemail.

“On Dec. 4, 2025, Adams County Detention Center medical staff responded to an emergency medical call. During the emergency response, Rodriguez did not respond to staff and did not have a pulse,” a notification by Immigration and Customs Enforcement says. Rodriguez was then transferred to the Merit Health hospital in Natchez, where he died. 

An Enforcement and Removal ICE agent had arrested Rodriguez in Dillon, Colorado, on Sept. 25. 

Representatives of the Adams County Sheriff’s Department did not respond in time for publication when asked whether they are looking into Rodriguez’s death. 

Since 2018, Congress has required ICE to report all in-custody deaths within 90 days. ICE’s website shows 15 deaths until September 2025. The Washington Post reported that the total number of detainee deaths this year is 30. 

Jarvis Dortch, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi, expressed concern about the recent deaths and conditions in ICE detention facilities across the country. 

“Detained individuals, the majority having no criminal record, are due humane conditions, proper medical care, and access to counsel and legal resources,” Dortch said. “This legal standard applies to federal actors as well as their partners in state and local law enforcement.” 

While the state of Mississippi and the state Legislature do not have jurisdiction over federal facilities such as the one where Rodriguez died, Rep. Robert Johnson, a Natchez Democrat, said some state lawmakers are planning to raise the issue of detention center conditions, for detainees and employees, once the next legislative session begins in January. 

“As a federal prison in a remote county, I don’t think it has the requisite amount of oversight and attention that it needs,” Johnson said about the Adams County facility. 

Among Democrats in Mississippi, Johnson said there has been “very little attention to that issue. Not because we don’t care, but we have some very serious and urgent issues that deal directly with the people that we represent right now.” 

ICE crackdowns in the South have increased in recent months, and there has been a ripple effect on immigrant communities in Mississippi, leading to fear and uncertainty. Some groups in the state, such as the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, El Pueblo and the Party for Socialism and Liberation have begun to organize in response. 

“The PSL here in Mississippi is dedicated mainly at the state level, ending the collaborative processes between federal agencies and our local law enforcement,” said Terron Weaver, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. “Rodriguez’s death highlights  the carelessness that our politicians and law enforcement officers have approached implementing their agenda with. It is clear they don’t care for anyone’s health, or for due process.”

Soybeans have been in the headlines a lot this year. Between a trade war with China, rising costs for farming equipment and supplies and low prices, farmers have seen a perfect storm of economic uncertainty. 

“It’s been a doozy of a year for agriculture,” said Rob Baker, a Mississippi soybean farmer and Director of the American Soybean Association. 

Soybeans are the second-largest agricultural product in Mississippi behind chickens. Valued at around $1.6 billion a year, almost all of the state’s soybeans are destined for international markets. 

China is the world’s largest importer, but in May, it stopped buying soybeans in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. China did not place its first order until October, just before Trump met with China’s President Xi Jinping. This period of uncertainty left American soybean farmers in limbo.

The White House has said that China committed to buying 12 million metric tons of soybeans from the U.S., but so far it has only bought 332,000 metric tons. This has led to concerns about whether it will keep its promises, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently said that China is still on track to keep up its end of the deal. 

This year’s tariffs alone didn’t cause the challenges but they did exacerbate existing problems soybean farmers were facing. In fact, farmers are still experiencing impacts of a 2018 trade war.

In May, Will Maples, an assistant professor of agricultural economics at Mississippi State University Extension Service told Mississippi Today that some of the economic challenges soybean farmers were facing were “kind of a holdover from the last 2018 trade war we had with China.”

The 2018 trade war saw some of the lowest levels in soybean purchases in the last 10 years. China has steadily invested in developing partners in other countries such as Brazil, putting further pressure on American farmers.

Even apart from global trade relations, farmers have struggled with historically high input costs for everything from seed and fertilizer to labor. On top of that, prices have dropped for soybeans and other row crops. High costs and low crop prices mean farmers face slim-to-no profit margins.  

In October, Duane Dunlap, president of DNS Commodities, told the Mississippi Senate Agriculture Committee, “It’s a real dilemma for us  in Mississippi and the Delta trying to decide where we go from here with our soybean crop.” 

Baker says the industry is looking for “more diverse uses for soy and new trading partners.” Some ideas include biodiesel, using soybeans in tires and more. 

Crop diversification presents its own challenges. Despite the challenges, soybeans are slightly better off than other row crops, such as cotton. Diversification isn’t as easy as just planting something new. It requires infrastructure to transport it and support the industry, which would take time and money to build.

While there are national and global forces at play, there are some ideas for what can be done in Mississippi. One idea that was floated at a recent state agriculture legislative committee meeting was building a processing plant in the state to create more demand and expand capabilities. 

In early December, the Trump administration announced a $12 billion bailout for farmers with funding coming from the Department of Agriculture’s Farmer Bridge Assistance program. The aid will help farmers mitigate their losses from this year and get loans to buy supplies for the next planting season. While many details haven’t been released, Baker says that the package is “a good start.” 

While 2025 has been a rough year, Baker says that he’s “starting to see a little bit of optimism” among soybean farmers who are hoping to return to profitability in 2026.

Mississippi Today health reporter Allen Siegler and health editor Laura Santhanam give an update on the state’s plan to spend its initial pot of opioid lawsuit settlement money. Siegler’s in-depth reporting has chronicled some issues and raised serious questions about how the state and local governments are spending the money, which is supposed to help address the scourge of opioid addiction, which has cost at least 10,000 lives in Mississippi since 2000.

These Mississippians faced challenges, spoke out, made art and launched innovative projects in 2025. Our reporters wrote about their experiences – whether positive or negative – as part of our commitment to elevating the voices of everyday Mississippians, holding those in power accountable and shining a light on the state’s dark places. 

Jayme Anderson

Jayme Anderson wore so many medals to his Forest Hill High School graduation that his mom, Angella, could hear him clanking as he walked across stage. At home in south Jackson, 18-year-old Anderson displayed a coffee table’s worth of awards: trophies, badges, plaques, rainbow-colored cords and a binder full of college acceptances. Anderson applied to more than 600 colleges and was admitted to 582, racking up more than $10 million in scholarship offers. He chose Pennsylvania State University. Anderson said he was driven by curiosity, free time, a desire to go out-of-state for higher education and a competitive streak. He also wanted to inspire other Jackson Public Schools students, who he said are often misunderstood and stereotyped, even by fellow Jacksonians. – By Mississippi Today Jackson Reporter Molly Minta

Stephen Brown

Stephen Brown is a hip-hop artist, producer and DJ – and the head of Briarwood Arts Center in Jackson. On any given night, the rooms of Briarwood Arts Center are filled with artists, creatives and dancers who have come to build community and hone their crafts. Before Brown moved into the neighborhood, the building had been abandoned – but he had a goal to recreate the local arts scene after several popular hangouts had closed, so he decided to lease the space. The center now offers events like line dancing classes, Kuumba (Swahili for creativity) Youth Night, GoodEDvice ACT Prep Club and Crochet Circle, and most of the events are free. His hope is that his persistence and dedication to creating safe spaces inspires others in Jackson to imagine what’s possible for their neighborhoods. – By former Mississippi Today Jackson Reporter Maya Miller

Rep. Becky Currie

State Rep. Becky Currie of Brookhaven is a conservative Republican who has become an outspoken critic of health care services in Mississippi’s prison system and of VitalCore Health Strategies, LLC, the private company with a contract to provide those services. Currie, who is a registered nurse, began touring state prisons after becoming chairwoman of the House Corrections Committee in early 2024, and she found a disturbing dearth of medical care for inmates. “We’re paying $124 million to a company for health care and they are not doing it and they are keeping the money,” said Currie, who is pushing for reform and has been a centerpiece of Mississippi Today’s investigative series on prison health care, Behind Bars, Beyond Care. Currie said Dr. Raman Singh, VitalCore’s chief medical officer, told her and State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney in a private meeting that about 5,000 Mississippi Department of Corrections prisoners and some prison workers had contracted hepatitis C. Interviews and documents obtained by Mississippi Today show that only a fraction of Mississippi inmates diagnosed with hepatitis C receive treatment, which has allowed the treatable infection to develop into a life-threatening illness. – By Mississippi Today Political Reporters Michael Goldberg and Health Reporter Gwen Dilworth

Derrick Evans

Community activist Derrick Evans is working to protect his historic Turkey Creek neighborhood in Gulfport from the damage of climate change. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Global Change Research Program published reports in recent years that link social disparities in the Southeast to a higher risk of impacts from natural disasters. Evans’ ancestors were among the freed slaves who founded  Turkey Creek after the Civil War. The area in north Gulfport now sits in the fifth most vulnerable census tract out of over 73,000 in the United States. Evans sees Mississippi as a state where people love hunting and fishing but political priorities seem detached from that very culture. “A polluted stream, an environmental vulnerability, is actually an abrogation to what we might call the Southern way of life,” he said. – By Mississippi Today Environment and Data Reporter Alex Rozier

Ann Fisher-Wirth

Mississippi poet laureate Ann Fisher-Wirth writes about seeing and listening to the world. Her poems contemplate natural scenes, such as a lone zinnia near a pond or a stag eating flowers over a raw grave. Fisher-Wirth directed the University of Mississippi’s environmental studies program and taught creative writing in its Master of Fine Arts program before she retired in 2022. She is a past president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, and is a senior fellow of the Black Earth Institute, which concentrates on social justice and environmental issues. She has written eight books of poetry. Her writing centers on place and humans’ connection to nature. – By Mississippi Today Summer Intern Maeve Rigney.

Tara Gandy

Tara Gandy was among the relatives of people killed by domestic violence who witnessed Gov. Tate Reeves sign a law that establishes a board to study how to prevent such deaths. Gandy’s 24-year-old daughter, Joslin Napier, was killed in Waynesboro in 2022. At the bill signing in April, Gandy carried a photo of Napier and said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims. Gandy said the board “will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number. They will be a number with a purpose.” – By Mississippi Today Justice Reporter Mina Corpuz.

Hilliard and Lillian Lackey

The family of Hilliard and Lillian Lackey of Jackson exemplifies hard work and academic success. Hilliard Lackey is a longtime professor of urban higher education and lifelong learning at Jackson State University. Several members of the family have doctoral degrees: Hilliard and Lillian Lackey; their daughters, Tahirih Lackey and Dr. Katrina Davis; the couple’s daughter-in-law, Tracy Knight Lackey; and his stepbrother and sister-in-law, Dr. Robert Long and Vanessa Rogers Long. Through the “Lackey Scholars” program, Hillard and Lillian Lackey have helped more than 500 high school students from Quitman County attend and graduate from Jackson State since 1967. – By Mississippi Today General Assignment Reporter Simeon Gates.

James Moore

James Moore of Hattiesburg translated personal tragedy into a mission to prevent other parents from enduring the loss of a child to addiction. A local bike shop owner and the father of a son who died of an overdose, Moore has long worked to stop overdoses across the Pine Belt region. But in 2025, his advocacy was elevated to a new level. He was a recurring voice in Mississippi Today’s reporting that highlighted how Mississippi was spending its opioid settlement money – including that local governments and the state had spent less than 1% of the money thus far on addressing the addiction crisis – and as a member of a state committee tasked with advising the Legislature on how to spend the remaining hundreds of millions of dollars moving forward. – By Mississippi Today Mental Health Reporter Allen Siegler. 

Stephanie Nowlin

For almost two years, Stephanie Nowlin was one of Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain’s top lieutenants. Cain hired Nowlin after she had served time in prison herself and made her his government affairs coordinator. The pair developed such a close bond that she came to view him like a grandfather. But now, she is speaking out about what she said is widespread medical neglect and mismanagement inside the agency and its facilities. Nowlin was a key source in an early  story in the Behind Bars, Beyond Care series revealing that in private, officials lamented the quality of medical services provided by Mississippi’s private medical contractor even as the company raked in hundreds of millions in public dollars. The series has also revealed that less than 6% of incarcerated people in Mississippi living with hepatitis C received treatment during a three-month time period, among other instances of alleged medical neglect in state prisons. – By Mississippi Today Politics Reporter Michael Goldberg

Jason Reid

Jason Reid, a physical education teacher in DeSoto County School District, has been teaching for 17 years. But in 2019, he also started moonlighting as a bus driver to earn extra money. Like Reid, many teachers in Mississippi often work multiple jobs – the state has the lowest teacher pay in the nation. And like many other educators, Reid said the worst part is the rising health insurance premiums – especially as a two-time cancer survivor. During his second round of treatment in 2022, his deductible was $13,000. He met the deductible early on, but still spent a huge chunk of money, he said. And as a teacher, there’s not an option to take paid medical leave. “We go on vacation … we’re not living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “But we can’t live the lifestyle a lot of neighbors would live.” – By Mississippi Today Education Reporter Devna Bose.

Nina Rifkind

Nina Rifkind, a University of Mississippi School of Law adjunct professor, made national news standing up to President Donald Trump on behalf of her late grandfather, famed New York attorney Simon Rifkind. The New York Times and other news outlets reported on the letter Nina Rifkind and her sister sent to the law firm her grandfather founded criticizing Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison for yielding to the wishes of the president. Trump had threatened various penalties against the firm because one of its former partners had worked in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office that investigated Trump. The firm agreed to various conditions to avoid those penalties. She wrote that her late grandfather would not have settled a dispute where an attorney was simply doing his job.”He would have above all sought to protect the independence of the bar, not just the firm,” she and her sister, Washington, D.C., attorney Amy Rifkind, wrote in the letter. In addition to the national news coverage, Nina Rifkind also wrote an essay for Mississippi Today Ideas.

Kimberly Todd

Kimberly Todd, a northeast Mississippi mother of five, qualified for Medicaid coverage on paper but couldn’t access the program. The state had asked Todd to file for child support from her ex-boyfriend before granting her eligibility for the program – forcing her to face months of back and forth with case workers, miscommunication among state agencies, delayed medical care and the possibility of sending the father of her two youngest children to jail. While she eventually qualified for Medicaid, her plight shows the hurdles poor people face in accessing the social safety net in Mississippi – and the negative impact that the Medicaid child support requirement can have on already-struggling families. – By Mississippi Today Health Reporter Sophia Paffenroth.

Lucinda Wade-Robinson

After her 22-year-old son was killed in her front yard in 2014, Lucinda Wade-Robinson wasn’t sure she would be able to cover the $8,000 funeral bill. She applied in Hinds County for help from Mississippi’s victim compensation program, a fund that each state has to reimburse victims of crime and their families for funeral expenses, medical costs, crime scene cleanup, execution travel and counseling, among other costs. But the state attorney general’s office, which administers the program, denied her claim, alleging her son was responsible for his death, a type of denial known as contributory misconduct. Mississippi’s definition of what kind of conduct contributes to one’s death is broader than most states, and a Mississippi Today investigation found that Wade-Robinson’s denial is not unusual. Mississippi has one of the highest rates of denials attributed to “contributory misconduct” when compared to other states, with about 6% of all applicants getting denied for this reason. – By Mississippi Today Education Reporter Leo Bevilacqua

Know a Mississippian who made a difference in 2025? Tell us about them over email at info@mississippitoday.org. And sign up for our daily newsletter to hear from other Mississippians in the future.

Julia Chavez picked up when her phone rings in the middle of the night. This scenario has played out several times, but during this late-night phone call, the person on the other end urgently asked her to translate.

“They’re at the hospital, and you can hear that they’re scared,” said Chavez, the founder and CEO of Columbus-based nonprofit Saving Grace Mission, remembering one of several such calls she has received. “They’re intimidated, and you can hear the frustration from the doctors on the other end.”

Hospitals, once protected against immigration enforcement, have increasingly become sites of anxiety and fear after President Donald Trump rescinded a long-standing policy in January that allowed immigrants access to health care providers, along with schools and churches, without fear of apprehension. Combined with heightened federal immigration enforcement in recent months, the change has left many immigrant families afraid to visit hospitals or attend routine medical appointments, health professionals and advocates told Mississippi Today. Some are skipping care altogether.

These new challenges are layered atop the barriers that immigrants already face accessing health care, such as language divides and limited access to public health insurance. More recently, experts say, federal funding cuts and changes to immigration policy have further reduced resources available to immigrant communities. 

Maria, a Biloxi resident who immigrated from Honduras and asked that her last name not be published, told Mississippi Today she and her two children have missed routine doctor’s appointments because they are “terrified” to leave the house amid an increased presence of federal immigration officers. Her husband, who has authorization to work in the U.S., was detained for two months earlier this year. 

Both of her children are U.S. citizens. 

“We haven’t taken them for their vaccinations,” she said in Spanish. “No, they haven’t had their annual checkups and things like that,” she said.  

Michael Oropeza, the director of El Pueblo, a nonprofit serving low-income immigrant communities, said the organization has witnessed families delay care, cancel children’s check-ups and go without refilling medication because they worry they could be detained by immigration officials. 

“It’s not because they don’t value their health, it’s because they don’t feel safe,” Oropeza said. “When hospitals and clinics are no longer that safe place, people withdraw trust that took years to build up. It can disappear overnight.” 

Immigration officers descended on New Orleans Dec. 3 as a part of the latest federal immigration crackdown, dubbed “Catahoula Crunch.” Early reports showed the campaign aimed to arrest roughly 5,000 people in Louisiana and southeastern Mississippi. Though arrests in Mississippi have been more sporadic than in nearby Louisiana, fear has swiftly rippled through immigrant communities in the state.

Some health care providers said they have seen a sudden drop-off in immigrant patients seeking care.

The Good Samaritan Medical Clinic in Columbus provides free primary health care services to residents of the Lowndes County area. The health center saw an influx in patients from immigrant communities in the beginning of the year, said Board Chairman Dr. William Rosenblatt.

Most of the new patients the clinic was seeing were seeking “non-trivial” medical care, such as very high blood pressure and blood sugar levels, Rosenblatt said. The clinic was building trust with the patients.

“We were able to really, I felt like, do some good,” he said. “And then, radio silence.” 

By the summer, visits from immigrant communities tapered off, he said, falling to zero in the past three to four months.

The chronic diseases the clinic was previously treating may not have immediate consequences, but will if they are left untreated, he said. 

“With a lot of these uncontrolled chronic diseases that we were seeing and the magnitude of how uncontrolled they were, it’s just sad to think about,” he said. 

When people delay routine care, it can put stress on emergency rooms, which are required by federal law to treat all patients, regardless of their immigration status or ability to pay. 

“When these folks do end up with these awful end stages of the disease — they have a massive stroke, they have a massive heart attack — they’re coming to our ER, right?,” he said. “They’re going to get emergency care. And what an additional strain that is on the healthcare system when we could have intervened with some prevention.”

Verba Moore, the clinic manager for Bethel Clinic, a free walk-in clinic in Biloxi, said staff members have observed fewer Hispanic and Vietnamese patients at the health center than usual over the course of the last four to six months. 

Since President Trump took office in January, the number of immigrant adults who reported skipping or postponing health care has increased, according to a recent survey from KFF and The New York Times. Four in 10 immigrant adults – and nearly twice as many likely undocumented immigrants — say immigration-related worries have spurred negative health impacts, including anxiety, difficulty sleeping or eating, and worsening health conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure. 

Among those who said they went without care, about 1 in 5 cited immigration-related concerns as reasons for delaying care. Even more — 63% — cited cost or lack of coverage.

Affordability and health insurance coverage are some of the most significant barriers to accessing health care immigrants face, said Leonardo Cuello, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for public health insurance programs, like Medicaid and Medicare, and some immigrants who are lawfully present in the U.S. are not eligible for the programs. 

Fewer lawfully present immigrants will be eligible for Medicaid or Affordable Care Act Marketplace financial assistance as a result of changes made in the federal budget reconciliation law signed by President Donald Trump in July. These changes, which will begin in 2026, will impact refugees, people granted political asylum and victims of domestic violence and trafficking. 

Cuello said some people who are eligible for public benefits may choose to disenroll in health insurance for fear of information being shared with immigration officials. The Trump administration provided deportation officials with personal and health data, including immigration statuses, of millions of Medicaid enrollees earlier this year despite concerns about privacy violations. In August, a federal court in California temporarily blocked the data sharing in 20 states that filed suit over the data sharing. 

In November, the Trump administration took steps to reverse a policy that prevented federal officials from considering a person’s use of certain public benefits, like Medicaid, when determining whether they might become a “public charge,” or person reliant on government assistance. Federal officials are allowed to deny entry to people they determine are likely to become a public charge. 

Research shows that some immigrant families disenrolled themselves and their children from benefits they were eligible for after the first Trump administration in 2019 broadened the scope of programs the federal government would consider in public charge determinations to include previously excluded health, nutrition and housing programs.

The change impacted many children and U.S. citizens, Cuello said. About 1 in 4 children in the U.S. have at least one immigrant parent, and many rely on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program benefits. 

“When mom or dad is afraid to enroll in health coverage or enroll for food benefits, you are impacting a lot of people who are U.S. citizens and kids,” said Cuello. 

Maria’s children, who are U.S. citizens, previously qualified for Medicaid, but she disenrolled them three years ago out of concern that using public benefits would jeopardize her family’s residency applications, she said. The family now pays for their children’s care out-of-pocket. 

Cuello noted that the effects of these federal policy changes extend far beyond those who are targeted. 

“The chilling effect associated with it is gargantuan,” he said. 

Federal funding cuts have also impacted immigrant communities’ access health care in Mississippi. 

El Pueblo, which has locations in Biloxi and Forrest, previously operated a community health worker program in Columbus. The program helped transport people to doctor’s appointments, complete forms and find affordable health care. 

But their contract with the Mississippi State Department of Health was terminated in March 2025 as a result of cancellations of hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding allocated for COVID-19 pandemic relief and used for a number of other public health initiatives. The nonprofit closed its Columbus office as a result. 

“That was basically loss of access to health care for the immigrant community,” Chavez said. “And that was the first time that we ever had access to health care for the immigrant community here.”

Rosenblatt said for him, it is a loss to be unable to serve those communities in the Columbus area. 

“They’re literally building our community,” he said. “And we’re no longer able to give them the support they need, and yeah, it breaks my heart a little bit.”

Mississippi Today reported in June that the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s electronic health record system included a field for “citizenship.” The medical center declined to comment on whether the hospital system asks for this information when patients are admitted, or whether the hospital has a policy about how to respond to federal immigration enforcement at the hospital. Mississippi does not require hospitals to collect citizenship information from patients.

Alicia Carpenter, a spokesperson for Merit Health, said this month the hospital system works to serve the medical needs of its patients while complying with the law. 

“If an ICE agent arrives intending to apprehend a patient or another person suspected of being undocumented, we will treat the agent in the same manner as we would any other law enforcement agency,” Carpenter said. “Our staff will not resist or interfere with efforts by law enforcement agencies to apprehend or question the individual.”

Baptist Memorial Hospitals also work to balance commitments to patient privacy and compliance with state and federal law, said spokesperson Kimberly Alexander in an email. 

Singing River Health System spokesperson Samantha Fletcher declined to answer questions about its policies regarding immigration enforcement. 

Once it feels safe to attend doctor’s appointments again, Maria said her top priority will be seeking mental health care to address the stress her family has endured. Her children cope with worry daily about what could happen to the family amid increased federal immigration enforcement, even though the parents hold visas and their children are citizens. 

“They come and ask us, ‘What’s going to happen?’” she said. “Because we also have two dogs, ‘What’s going to happen to the dogs?’ They don’t want to leave them because they adore their dogs.”

Mississippians have benefitted more from the enhanced subsidies provided for the federal Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance policies than the people of almost any other state.

But Mississippi Republican politicians – on both the state and federal level – have been silent as church mice in offering solutions for when the enhanced federal subsidies expire at the end of 2025. The expiration will cause insurance premiums to skyrocket for 200,000 to 300,000 Mississippians.

The marketplace, created in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act, allows people to purchase health care coverage often with federal financial assistance. The original ACA provided subsidies or tax credits for people falling within certain income categories.

During President Joe Biden’s administration, the financial assistance was enhanced, providing additional aid to purchase health insurance for low-income people and for the first time in some instances offering assistance for people who would be considered more affluent but working in jobs that do not provide health insurance. Under the enhanced subsidies, the premiums are capped at 8.5% of a person’s earnings.

It is those enhanced subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year.

Democrats in Congress have been trying to extend the enhanced subsidies, but President Donald Trump and the congressional Republican leadership have resisted. Mississippi Republican leadership, including U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith and the state’s congressional delegation have sided with Trump and the congressional leadership.

According to KFF, as reported by Mississippi Today, a 40-year-old Jacksonian earning $30,000 per year would see their monthly insurance cost increase from the current $42 to $155 for a policy purchased on the exchange when the enhanced federal financial assistance expires at the end of 2025.

Mississippi politicians, though quiet on the issue of the expiring subsidies, seem to have a reason to be concerned.

After all, according to KFF, a national nonprofit organization that studies health care issues, 99% of Mississippians with an ACA exchange health insurance policy receive federal financial premium assistance. And from 2020 through 2025, according to KFF, the number of Mississippians with marketplace health insurance policies has risen an astounding 242%. Only Texas saw a bigger jump of 256%.

Both Mississippi and Texas are home of financially struggling hospitals and poor health care outcomes. 

The enhanced financial assistance was one of the few positive occurrences for health care providers and low-income people in Mississippi where politicians have historically tried to address large gashes in the health care delivery system with bandages.

But when some Mississippi politicians, including Republican House Speaker Jason White, were trying to address the health care issue by joining 40 other states in expanding Medicaid to help hospitals financially while providing reliable health care coverage for poor working Mississippians, those opposed to expansion cited the enhanced subsidies.

They claimed that Medicaid expansion was not needed for many Mississippians because they could garner private health insurance for little or no cost thanks to the enhanced subsidies.

But now the subsidies are ending unless Congress reverses course. Rural hospitals and working Mississippians, who still do not have Medicaid expansion to help with their health care needs, will be faced with paying much more for private insurance.

When it comes to health care, Mississippi seems to take one small step forward and giant leaps backward.

OXFORD — The legend of Trinidad Chambliss grew a little larger in Ole Miss’ 41-10 victory over Tulane on Saturday in a first-round playoff game, with the former Division II championship quarterback playing one of his most complete games since taking over the starting position in September.

The senior was responsible for 318 yards of offense and three touchdowns, moving him into sixth place all-time in program history. His third-quarter touchdown pass to De’Zhaun Stribling was the 50th of his college career. He has thrown for at least one score in every game since he arrived in Oxford.

After the game, Chambliss took a minute to reflect on how different his life is compared to a year ago.

“This was definitely a dream of mine from when I was a little kid,” he said. “And now that we’re here, it’s time to embrace it and have fun. But, yeah, it’s crazy to think about how my life has changed since going from Division II Ferris State to Ole Miss and the SEC.”

Chambliss’ former team, Ferris State, clinched its second-straight championship Saturday with a 42-21 win over Harding in McKinney, Texas.

“Shout out to them,” Chambliss said Saturday with a grin.

The senior was responsible for 318 yards of offense and three touchdowns, moving him into sixth place all-time in program history. His third-quarter touchdown pass to De’Zhaun Stribling was the 50th of his college career. He has thrown for at least one score in every game since he arrived in Oxford.

The Mississippi contingent

Several of the Rebels’ biggest contributors Saturday were Mississippi natives, especially on the defensive side of the football:

• Sophomore Will Echoles, a former Houston Hilltoppers, led the Rebels with six total tackles, including one for a loss.

• Junior linebacker and Raleigh native Suntarine Perkins had four tackles, including 2.5 for a loss, and forced a fumble that Ole Miss recovered.

• Sophomore defensive end Kam Franklin, a Lake Cormorant product, finished the game with three solo stops and got in on one of the two Rebel sacks of Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff.

Echoles, who recently announced he has no plans to enter the transfer portal, said he is looking forward to playing in the Magnolia State for at least one more year.

“Home is home,” Echoles said. “Ole Miss is my home and I love the fans here. Why would I want to be anywhere else?”

Sumrall acknowledged ‘hard’ week

Tulane’s loss to Ole Miss capped a whirlwind December for Green Wave coach Jon Sumrall.

Just two weeks ago, the 43-year-old Huntsville, Alabama, native experienced the highest of highs — accepting the head coaching job at the University of Florida, a position that will reportedly pay him $44.7 million over six years.

And Friday, on the eve he was to lead Tulane into the program’s first-ever College Football Playoff, he announced that his father, George Sumrall, had died after a lengthy illness.

“He watched us today,” Sumrall said. “He’s probably got some questions about how we played, just like I do. I just don’t get to hear it from him tonight.”

A day of records

The announced crowd of 68,251 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium Saturday is the largest crowd to ever witness a live sporting event in the state of Mississippi.

The win for Ole Miss makes this 2025 rendition of the Rebels the first in program history to record 12 wins, topping the 11-2 previous high set in 2023. The Rebels have also now won 12 consecutive home games going back to an Oct. 26, 2024 win over Oklahoma. It’s the third-longest active steak in all of college football.

If all that wasn’t enough, fans were encouraged to don Santa hats, provided by the university, in an attempt to set the world record for most people in one place wearing Santa hats. No word, as yet, on whether a record was set or who would confirm it.

OXFORD — The Ole Miss Rebels are one step closer to playing for a national championship after Saturday’s convincing 41-10 playoff-opening victory over Tulane.

The win advances the Rebels (12-1) to a second-round showdown with Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day in New Orleans. That matchup will offer Ole Miss a chance to avenge its only loss of the season (the Rebels lost to Georgia 43-35 back on Oct. 18) after denying Tulane its own shot at redemption Saturday.

The Rebels beat the Green Wave (11-3) by five touchdowns in the regular-season meeting back in September, and poured it on again in the rematch in front of an announced record crowd of 68,251 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

It was a game of firsts for Ole Miss: It was both the Rebels’ inaugural college football playoff game and the opening salvo for newly minted head coach Pete Golding, elevated from defensive coordinator after former coach Lane Kiffin bolted for LSU on Nov. 28.

“This is obviously an exciting night for our program, our fans and most importantly, our players,” Golding said. “You know, obviously, I think they’ve been through a lot over these last couple of weeks, and it was good to just get back on the grass, at home and in front of our fans, and get out there and play the game they love.”

And play they did. Despite the turnover and a three-week layoff, the first 12-win team in program history showed few signs of rust.

The Rebels went 75 yards in three plays on the game’s opening possession, taking a 7-0 lead on a 20-yard run by All-SEC tailback Kewan Lacy.

Their second drive went 60 yards in four plays, with quarterback Trinidad Chambliss scampering in from six yards out to put Ole Miss ahead 14-0 at the midway mark in the first quarter. That’s seven offensive plays, 135 yards and two touchdowns if you are keeping score. That start put to bed any concerns about offensive coordinator Charlie Weiss, back on loan after following Kiffin to LSU, calling the Ole Miss plays.

“I wasn’t worried about Charlie calling a solid game for one reason,” Golding said “This whole time, anyone who talked about us has referred to ‘Lane Kiffin’s offense.’ So if we come out here and lay an egg, it was going to be because Lane Kiffin wasn’t here. So I knew he would want to come out here and show it was him calling these games and getting the credit for it.”

The two teams traded field goals in the second quarter, and Ole Miss took a 17-3 lead into the halftime break.
The second half was more of the same.

Chambliss tossed a 13-yard touchdown pass to De’Zhaun Stribling on the Rebels’ first possession of the third quarter, and kicker Lucas Carneiro’s second field goal put the Rebels ahead 27-3 headed to the fourth quarter.
As one-sided as the final score appeared, Tulane had a much better plan for the Rebels than it did in September.

The Green Wave rolled to 421 yards of total offense — much more than the 282 they gained in the first meeting — but almost all of Saturday’s production came on their own end of the field.

The Ole Miss defense also shut down their opponents when it mattered most. The Green Wave offense was 0-for-4 on fourth-down conversion attempts. Tulane’s outgoing head coach Jon Sumrall said that the determining factor.

“The yardage wasn’t that big of a discrepancy,” Sumrall said. “But the situational stuff wasn’t good for us. We went under center on third and fourth down twice with a yard to go, and couldn’t get it. Then we went into the (shot)gun because if we couldn’t sneak it, maybe we could get it on the perimeter, but we couldn’t.”

Tulane’s lone touchdown came with four minutes left in the game on a 29-yard pass against the Rebels’ defensive reserves. The Green Wave’s only trip into the red zone came in the second quarter and resulted in a field goal.

The Tulane defense offered less resistance. Chambliss finished with a crisp stat line — he was 23 of 29 for 282 yards and three total touchdowns — and Lacy’s 87 yards led a rushing attack that rolled up 151.

“I didn’t feel like the team was nervous or doubting ourselves or anything like that,” Chambliss said. “We didn’t face a whole lot of adversity today, if we’re being honest. We had a couple of drives we stalled out, and those could have been crucial, but other than that we were kind of rolling and I thought we really executed well.”