RIDGELAND – Two child-sized bikes stood propped at the end of a driveway next to a house in a mobile home community last week. A poinsettia garland twined around a staircase bannister, and a red and gold Christmas wreath adorned the facade. A grey and white cat mewed at the front door, asking to be let in. No one answered a knock at the door. 

Federal immigration enforcement detained the family that lived at the house in Harbor Pines Mobile Home Community — a mother, father, and at least two young children — on Dec. 4, a neighbor told Mississippi Today. 

A video circulated among neighbors that morning showed several people, including one wearing a law enforcement vest, approaching the home. The video, along with accounts of families detained by immigration enforcement shared on social media in the area, has kindled fear among some members of the community. 

Rick McKay, who has lived in Harbor Pines for about 20 years, said he wasn’t aware of the arrests but that the neighborhood has been quiet lately, possibly due to a fear of intensified immigration enforcement. 

“It might be a little quiet, but it’s winter,” he said. 

Fear and uncertainty are spreading through immigrant communities across Mississippi as reports emerge of immigration agents detaining individuals and families. Although this month’s arrests have been more sporadic than those in nearby Louisiana — where federal agents launched the latest immigration crackdown Dec. 3 — their effects have swiftly rippled throughout Mississippi.

The number of people detained in Mississippi is unknown publicly. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to Mississippi Today’s request for comment Friday. And, it’s unclear how or if the recent arrests made in Mississippi are connected to the operation based in New Orleans, dubbed “Catahoula Crunch.” 

Tracking arrests of people swept up by federal immigration agents has proven difficult for advocates and families because the agencies directing the crackdown have offered little information about the operation. Nor have local and state law enforcement, even though some have agreements to cooperate with ICE.

Catahoula Crunch, also referred to as Operation Swamp Sweep in planning documents, is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s third major immigration enforcement action this year, following Midway Blitz in Chicago and November’s Charlotte’s Web in Charlotte, North Carolina. Early reports showed the campaign aimed to arrest roughly 5,000 people across Louisiana and southeastern Mississippi.

Federal agents have made more than 250 arrests across southeast Louisiana this month, according to The Associated Press. 

DHS said the sweep in New Orleans continues its efforts to arrest “rapists, thieves, gang members, human smugglers, and abusers,” though an AP report identified criminal histories for less than a third of the 38 people arrested in the operation’s first two days. 

Some Mississippi leaders, including Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, have embraced the operation, while immigrant communities and advocates said they are bracing themselves.

“We support the president’s efforts in trying to get law and order in our state and in our country,” Reeves said to WAPT Nov. 21.

Lea Campbell, an Ocean Springs resident and member of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Mutual Aid Collective, said the community advocacy group has seen an increased presence of federal immigration officers on the Coast.

“We kind of are preparing for the worst,” Campell said.

‘Something better for their daughters’

Debbie Pierce is one of five women who founded Adelante, a Jackson-based group that provides support to the immigrant community. In recent weeks, she said members have learned that several people they were assisting were detained by ICE, leaving behind empty cars. 

The group is also supporting a Brandon woman caring for three children younger than 3 after immigration agents arrested their mother at the end of November while she was on her way to work. ICE records show the woman, Ana Lucas-Pedro, is detained at the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana. 

Kitzia, an Adelante member who asked to be identified by her first name, said she has taken donations of food and diapers to the neighbor and children. 

“I don’t think she was prepared in any way, shape or form,” Kitzia said of the mother. She said the same of the stand-in caretaker, who is now burdened with caring for three children in addition to her own.

In Ridgeland, a neighbor who asked to remain anonymous for fear of being targeted by law enforcement, identified one person arrested at Harbor Pines Mobile Home Park as Rolando Quintero de la Cruz. ICE records show he was born in Mexico and is being held at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana. 

His wife, Jennifer Luis-Hernandez is being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, according to ICE records. Mississippi Today was not able to locate the children, and immigration detention records are not available for minors.  

ICE did not respond to questions about how many people, or if any children, were detained in the arrest. 

The South Texas Family Residential Center was built in 2014 to house families, but President Joe Biden’s administration halted the practice of family detention, and the facility held only adults until it closed in 2024. It reopened in March, retrofitted to house children again. 

The family moved to the U.S. a few years ago to improve their quality of life and “look for something better for their daughters,” Maricruz Nostroza Dionisio, a family friend, said in Spanish in a message to Mississippi Today. 

Alex Gibert, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, said the process for bringing any child, regardless of immigration status, into state custody remains the same. 

Concern for a child’s safety would need to first be reported to a statewide hotline, which would lead the department to conduct an investigation, she said in a Friday statement. From there, the agency can make recommendations for the youth court, and a judge can issue a custody order. 

How sightings affect the community

Immigration agents in unmarked vehicles and vests have been spotted from the Jackson metro area to the Coast, community advocates say. 

Campbell said people have seen an uptick of Customs and Border Protection vans and trucks, especially by exits along Interstate 10, and in downtown Biloxi and Gulfport. 

Pierce, of Adelente, said agents have been seen in Canton, Madison and Pelahatchie in Madison and Rankin counties in central Mississippi. 

Jeremy Litton, an immigration attorney, said ICE or CBP agents continue to be seen in Forest, which is an hour east of Jackson, weeks after two back-to-back sightings of officers near businesses that serve the Latino community.  

The increased presence of federal immigration officials, paired with news of detainments, has led to some immigrants staying home and not attending school or church, advocates said. 

Michael Oropeza, executive director of El Pueblo, a nonprofit serving low-income immigrant communities in Mississippi, said the organization cancelled its annual Hispanic festival fundraiser and stopped holding in-person education events out of fear for the community. 

News of immigration raids ripples beyond the place where enforcement activity occurs, she said.  

“When there’s a raid in one town, fear is going to spread to others in real time,” Oropeza said. 

Advocates respond with aid, information

Advocates and community groups say they are helping immigrants in a variety of ways: bringing groceries to them so they don’t have to go to the store, offering assistance with transportation and connecting them to legal services. 

Pierce, of Adelante, is helping to tutor the children of immigrants in the Jackson area. She hopes the church they are using can continue to be a safe space for them. 

Campbell said volunteers for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Mutual Aid Collective take students home from a Biloxi afterschool program, so parents do not have to risk contact with immigration agents. 

The Gulf Coast group also collects information about the presence of immigration agents in public spaces and shares the reports through social media.

Community groups are also offering resources and education for the greater community, such as “know your rights” training. 

The presence of federal immigration officers in Mississippi creates a climate of fear that undermines immigrants’ sense of safety, even among those not directly being targeted, Oropeza said. 

“It just breaks down institutional trust with schools and hospitals and even local law enforcement, which is scary,” she said. 

If you have a news tip about the immigration enforcement presence in the state, please contact Mississippi Today on Signal at +1-601-281-8952. You can also email us at  info@mississippitoday.org or tips@mississippitoday.org.