A quiet, rural area in central Mississippi with a large Latino population, traumatized by massive federal raids in 2019, is now living in fear again as immigration agents set up around town and detain people. 

They’ve lingered outside a laundromat leaving people afraid to leave a nearby church. Vested agents and unmarked cars went to a tortilla bake shop and then a grocery store. 

For two weekends in a row, and the second time in seven years, they shattered the calm in what one Forest resident said has always been “a peaceful place full of Hispanic people.”

Starting Nov. 2, residents saw Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers wearing lettered vests stating “Police ICE” and “ERO” – Enforcement and Removal Operations. Unmarked cars accompanied them, and at least two ICE officers were present, according to photos taken of the agents that were circulated within the community through social media. 

Zully Lopez, who has lived in Forest for three years and grew up in nearby Morton, first became aware of ICE’s presence while she was at church Nov. 2. Members were talking about photos circulating of a sighting of agents near a laundromat on Hill Street. 

Then Lopez heard from a family member at Iglesia El Buen Pastor, a church on Pine Street whose parking lot entrance and exit are located near the laundromat. Over the phone, the family member said some people didn’t feel safe leaving, so they waited inside for an hour. Church officials could not be reached for comment.

Immigration agents detained a person from the laundromat, and then their van pulled into the church parking lot, blocking it for a few minutes. Later, Lopez said she and other members of the community learned that ICE went to a tortilla bake shop on Hill Street and detained a woman there. 

“Why stop there? Were you trying to intimidate?” asked Lopez, who is an American citizen. “That’s what you were trying to do, trying to intimidate good Christians of Missisisppi of that church and people who were trying to wash their clothes.” 

The next week, ICE officers returned. Residents reported seeing them on U.S. 80 where they stopped a truck and talked to the driver. Lopez said the area is near a Guatemalan grocery store. That Sunday, Enforcement and Removal Operations officers parked outside a Mexican grocery store, La Moreliana. It’s not clear whether anyone was detained. 

A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security was not available for comment Tuesday or Wednesday about the presence of ICE officers and detention of people in Forest. 

Nationally, as of mid September, nearly 60,000 people have been detained by ICE and Customs and Border Protection, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse immigration data by Syracuse University. 

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to deploy roughly 250 federal border agents to Louisiana and Mississippi in an initiative dubbed “Swamp Sweep” aimed at arresting nearly 5,000 people in the two states. Citing internal documents and people familiar with the operation, AP reported the initiative would heavily focus on southeastern Louisiana with additional enforcement in southeastern Mississippi.

Lopez said the immigrants in Forest have done nothing but work hard and came to the United States to pursue a better future for their children, which is what her parents did for her. 

Jeremy Litton, an immigration attorney who represents people from around the state, said guidance from the agency and a Board of Immigration Appeals decision have created a situation where people are being detained indefinitely without options for bond. 

Even though she is an American citizen, Lopez said she feels targeted in Forest because of her skin color. 

A couple of weeks ago, Mississippi Highway Patrol stopped her family at a roadblock. Her husband was driving and she was in the backseat with their baby. They are Latino and have brown skin. 

A trooper asked if they have legal immigration status and if they were from there. Yes, Lopez’s husband replied. Then the trooper asked for his Social Security number, but before Lopez’s husband could provide it, the other said he didn’t have to because he spoke English well enough. 

The troopers let them go, but Lopez said she doesn’t feel safe anymore. 

A spokesperson from the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the highway patrol, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. 

In September, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled federal immigration officers can stop people without reasonable suspicion based on their apparent race or ethnicity, if they speak in Spanish or accented English, if they are in a place where immigrants are known to gather and if they work in specific jobs that immigrants are known to work. 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is Latina, wrote in her dissent that such a decision has enabled the Trump administration to declare all Latinos, regardless of U.S. citizenship, as “fair game to be seized at any time” if they fit the criteria. 

Lopez lived through the 2019 raids across poultry plants in central Mississippi. 

That morning in August 2019 was the first day of her sophomore year at Morton High School. Then came a call from her father saying immigration agents were at PH Food where her mother worked. Lopez remembers going to the principal to say that students needed to be informed because some of their parents worked at the plant. 

Lopez headed to PH Food while her father picked up her younger siblings from school. At the plant, she saw the buses loading people up and others handcuffed. Her mother was on one of the buses, and Lopez said that was when she realized immigration officers could take her, even though she had work authorization. Her mother was let go once ICE determined she had a Social Security number. 

She remembers seeing classmates distraught about their parents and some children who had to spend time at churches because their parents had been taken away. Lopez said she helped take a group of children to a church and heard a young girl ask if her mother was gone because she was working overtime. 

Since the raid, her mother was able to obtain legal permanent residency, commonly known as a green card. But her father, who entered the country without authorization decades ago, was deported to Mexico in August. He will have to wait 10 years before he can come to the United States because of his prior entry. 

That 2019 experience also changed the trajectory of Lopez’s life. She had worked at a bank and saw herself becoming a certified public accountant. But she felt called to help people navigate immigration matters. 

Lopez connected with an immigration nonprofit organization and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies at Mississippi College. She now works at Litton’s law firm.

“This way is a powerful way to help,” Lopez said about her job.