OurTupelo

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against immigration enforcement, have increasingly become sites of anxiety and fear after President Donald Trump rescinded a long-standing policy in January that allowed immigrants access to health care providers, along with schools and churches, without fear of apprehension.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Maria, a Biloxi resident who immigrated from Honduras and asked that her last name not be published, told Mississippi Today she and her two children have missed routine doctor’s appointments because they are “terrified” to leave the house amid an increased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.”

OXFORD — Amid a wildly festive, playoffs-worthy atmosphere that included a State of Mississippi record crowd, several dazzling light shows, fireworks and more than 60,000 Santa Claus hats, Ole Miss was still lots, lots better than Tulane here Saturday.

Don’t know what the Rebels want for Christmas, but we know what they will get for New Year’s Day: the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl and the national championship quarterfinals.

In Pete Golding’s debut as the Ole Miss head football coach on this breezy sun-splashed Saturday, his Rebels did not disappoint. They out-blocked, out-tackled, out-ran and thoroughly out-played Tulane, which came into the game with an 11-2 record and as champions of the American Athletic Conference. The final score was 41-10 with the visiting Green Wave scoring its only touchdown late. The outcome was never in doubt after the Rebels scored touchdowns on their first two possessions and made it look easy.

Midway through the third quarter with the Rebels cruising, music blaring, thousands of red and blue lights flashing and many of the crowd of 68,251 dancing, this observer wondered to himself: “My heavens, what would Johnny Vaught think of all this?”

They didn’t have light shows, especially some produced by drones, back in the 1950s and ‘60s when the legendary Vaught was coaching the Rebels to six SEC championships and Top 10 finishes on an almost yearly basis. Hell, they didn’t have stadium lights. But count on this: Vaught surely would approve of these Rebels’ speed, strength and precision – and of the first 12-victory season in Ole Miss history. (Vaught also surely would remind you his team never got to play 12 games.)

On virtually every play that really mattered, the Rebels dominated. Tulane converted only five of 18 third and fourth down possession plays.

For Ole Miss, the usual stars shone brightly. Trinidad Chambliss passed for 282 yards and a touchdown and ran for two more touchdown. Kewan Lacy ran for 87 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. A fleet of Ole Miss receivers – a dozen in all – made catches. Golding’s defense gave up some yards but stiffened when it had to. Tulane drove the ball into the end zone only once, but was quickly pushed back out. The Rebels were every bit as dominant as they had been back in September when they trounced Tulane 45-10 in this same stadium.

Really, the only anxious moments for the Rebels came in the second quarter when first Lacy and then Chambliss were helped off the field after injuries. The good news: Both eventually returned and seemed no worse for wear.

Many in the record crowd were surely eager to see what difference they would see in Golding’s coaching vs. that of the man he replaced, Lane Kiffin. Not much, turns out. The most obvious difference might have surfaced in the second quarter when, leading 14-3 and facing fourth down and four yards to go at the Tulane 25, Golding chose to kick a field goal. History tells us Kiffin far more times than not, would have gone for the first down. Lucas Carneiro booted the 42-yard field goal.

Asked it about afterward, Golding said, “The book is going to say it’s still a two-possession game, right, but I coach defense and now the field goal makes it a two-touchdown lead. That’s different to me. … And we keep the momentum. That’s where I’m different than the book.”

Translation: Golding figured they could have played until until Christmas and Tulane wouldn’t have scored two touchdowns against his No. 1 defense.

Ole Miss fans, many wearing “Golding Era” buttons, cheered loudly when Golding was shown on the Jumbotrons walking onto the field. In the fourth quarter, with the outcome long since decided, those same fans chanted, “Golding! Golding! Golding!” Moments later, another chant began: “F- – – Lane Kiffin! “F- – – Lane Kiffin! F- – – Lane Kiffin!”

In a post-game interview Ole Miss co-defensive coordinator Bryan Brown was asked what differences he sees in Golding now that he’s the head man.

Said Brown, “Well, his room is bigger now.”

Translation: Golding hasn’t changed.

“He still controls the room,” Brown said. “The guys believe in him. He’s a great coach and a great motivator.”

Joe Judge, the quarterbacks coach and former New York Giants coach head coach, was asked a similar question.

“He’s Pete,” Judge answered. That’s what makes him special. He’s not going to change. That’s why I wanted to stay here and work for him. That’s who he is.”

And Golding, the former Delta State walk-on safety, is now 1-0 as a head coach that “one” was one of the biggest victories in Ole Miss history. His team played fast, physical and soundly – one five-yard penalty and just one turnover.

Here’s the deal – and you better believe Golding knows it – they’ll need to play better still to beat Georgia, which very well might be the best team in the playoffs.

Dec. 20, 1918

‘Five days before Christmas, a white mob carried out a quadruple homicide at Mississippi’s “Hanging Bridge” — an incident so horrific it helped inspire a national conference on lynchings.

Authorities had charged sisters Maggie and Alma Howze and brothers Major and Andrew Clark with murder, allegedly over a pay dispute with the women’s boss, but before a trial could take place, a dozen vehicles surrounded the jail, manned by a single deputy. 

The mob abducted the four and took them to a bridge over the Chickasawhay River, one mile north of Shubuta. The next morning, citizens awoke to see four bodies swaying from what locals called the “Hanging Bridge.”

Walter White, who had survived the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre that killed dozens and wounded scores of others, was working for the national NAACP when he heard what happened in Mississippi. He came to investigate. His light skin enabled him to pass for white.

He uncovered allegations that this boss had sexually abused the sisters, who were both pregnant at the time of their deaths. Major Clark planned to marry Maggie Howze, and he reportedly told the boss to stay away from her. White also discovered that Clark’s purported confession in the case came after authorities put his testicles in a vise. He later published what he learned in the NAACP’s report, “Thirty Years of Lynching.”

Twenty-four years later, dawn brought the sight of two more swaying bodies. Two young Black teens, Ernest Green and Charlie Lang, as young as 14, were lynched at the same site after they were accused of attempting to attack a 13-year-old white girl. Some reports say they were whistling at her or chasing her. The white mob didn’t investigate. They abducted the teens and hanged them from the bridge.

Black newspapers published photographs of the teens’ corpses, and the Justice Department launched what is believed to be the first federal lynching investigation in Mississippi. The killers walked free, but the injustice helped fuel the “Double V” campaign led by Black newspapers. Black soldiers would help win World War II and return home for a second push for victory, this one over Jim Crow and mob violence aimed at African Americans.

The Senate granted the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina federal recognition on Wednesday.

Dozens of members of the tribe, which has been pushing for recognition for more than a century, watched from the Senate gallery as the chamber passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which included the measure, by a vote of 77-20. The House passed the legislation last week, so it will now head to the president’s desk for his signature.

The issue had held up President Donald Trump’s federal judicial nominations for Mississippi for months.

The provision recognizing the Lumbee was supported by Trump, who signed an executive order to advance the tribe’s recognition in January. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said passing it is the most memorable part of his Senate career.

“We’re literally repealing law that was passed by racist members of this institution in 1958 that made it impossible for (the Lumbee) to get recognized through the administration,” Tillis, who is retiring next year, told NOTUS. “We’re going further by saying they are federally recognized, and they deserve it, and God bless them for being so patient. I would not have been.”

The Lumbee Fairness Act is buried more than 3,000 pages deep in the NDAA for fiscal year 2026. The provision federally recognizes the 55,000-member tribe — which previously only had state-level recognition — and provides the path for Lumbee tribal members to access federal benefits for Native Americans. It also designates several counties in North Carolina as being on or near an Indian reservation: Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland.

“There’s been a lot of people who’ve worked on this, and we’re just striving to this point and wanting to see this take place, and I’m just overwhelmed. I’m full of joy. Our people are happy, a lot of tears right now, and we’re thrilled,” John L. Lowery, the chair of the Lumbee Tribe, told NOTUS.

“I just want to thank everybody who’s helped us get here — Sen. Tillis, many others. And I want to thank our ancestors. Our ancestors started this. They saw a vision a long time ago. Thank God we’ve been able to see it fulfilled,” he added.

Sounds of sniffling filled the hallways outside the Senate chamber as Tillis led members of the tribe down the stairs from the gallery after the vote. Some members were crying, some shared hugs.

Tillis has been at the forefront of efforts to get the tribe recognized through congressional action over the past two years, including sponsoring a standalone Senate bill and trying to block Mississippi judicial nominees in an effort to persuade Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker to put the tribe’s recognition in the NDAA.

Trump and his administration have been enthusiastic about recognizing the Lumbee Tribe. Vice President JD Vance joined as a co-sponsor of Tillis’ bill to recognize the tribe in September 2024. While Trump had signed a related executive order, the tribe couldn’t be recognized by an executive order alone, but it could be through an act of Congress.

“I love the Lumbee tribe,” Trump said before signing the executive order. “This is their first big step, right? They were with me all the way. They were great, North Carolina.”

The tribe resides in one of the swingiest states in the nation, which Trump won in the 2024 election by about three percentage points. North Carolina’s other senator, Sen. Ted Budd, has worked with Tillis on legislation to get the tribe recognized.

“I’m very, very pleased at the result,” Budd told NOTUS.

On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump traveled to Robeson County and pledged his support to the Lumbee’s recognition.

“I heard that, and I pursued that, and the president is fulfilling his promise when he signs this into law tomorrow afternoon,” Tillis said. “We’ve had a lot of people go down there. We had Biden go down there. We had people in the Obama administration go down. When they were controlling all of Washington, they didn’t deliver. This president is the reason why we were able to get the environment to get this done.”

Tillis said that the White House counsel, along with the director of legislative affairs, James Braid, was influential in getting the legislation across the finish line.

“We’ve had dust-ups from time to time, but we were all moving like a well-oiled machine,” Tillis said. “It’s been decades that [the Lumbee have] been trying to do it here, let alone a century that they’ve attempted it before they got the ear of some members of Congress.”

Though Tillis is close with the tribe now, and often wears a bolo tie to Senate votes that members of the tribe made and gifted to him, he was not always supportive of the tribe’s recognition, he said.

“I was, I think, the first member of the Senate in modern times that refused to co-sponsor the Lumbee recognition bill in my first Congress because … I’ve got to be convinced you’ve got a case before I’m willing to do it,” Tillis said. “I spent the time, I understood what they were going through — embarrassed that I didn’t really know that history well — and then committed to them.”

This story is provided by a partnership between Mississippi Today and the NOTUS Washington Bureau Initiative, which seeks to help readers in local communities understand what their elected representatives are doing in Congress.

Mississippi prisoners were likely left without adequate dental care for months as the state’s private prison health care contractor failed to meet staffing requirements and the Department of Corrections failed to document the problem, according to a new legislative watchdog report.

In a report published on Friday, the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance, Evaluation and Expenditure Review, or PEER, found staffing shortages overseen by VitalCore Health Strategies, the Kansas-based private company that receives hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to provide medical care in Mississippi’s prisons under a contract with the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

The report, which focuses on dental care in nursing homes and prisons, also found that the Department of Corrections, beyond looking at staffing levels, could not produce any documentation showing it was monitoring VitalCore’s compliance with the lucrative contract awarded to the company. The findings suggest that Mississippi prisoners have been put in harm’s way by the government entities in charge of their care.

“The lack of monitoring lowers MDOC’s ability to hold VitalCore accountable for providing services and increases the possibility for inmates to receive insufficient care,” the report said.

The combination of shortcomings increased the risk of untreated medical needs and limited Mississippi’s ability to hold its contractor accountable, even as MDOC sought millions of dollars in financial penalties for staffing shortfalls — all of which has been previously reported by Mississippi Today.

Friday’s report follows numerous installments in Mississippi Today’s Behind Bars, Beyond Care series, which has documented alleged routine denial of health care in state prisons. The series includes reports of potentially thousands of people living with hepatitis C going without treatment, an untreated broken arm that resulted in amputation and delayed cancer screenings. The series has also provided an inside view of discontent among high-ranking officials inside the prison system, with one ex-corrections official turning over private communications between former colleagues showing them lamenting the quality of care provided by VitalCore.

The watchdog report also reveals the department is in the process of finalizing a contract through the Mississippi State Personnel Board to hire an external contract monitor to assist with keeping tabs on VitalCore. This means that MDOC plans to outsource its role in ensuring VitalCore provides the care it’s paid to provide.

The report said MDOC reviewed the findings and elected not to provide a formal response. Spokespeople for MDOC and VitalCore did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Mississippi Today about specific findings in the report.

Those findings included the revelation that VitalCore’s staffing hours for dental professionals fell below contractual requirements every month from January to June 2025, with unfilled hours ranging from 31% to 57%. Dental directors filled only 43% of required hours, dentists 59%, and dental assistants 69%—all below contract standards.

These staffing shortages “decrease the likelihood of high quality dental care for inmates and increase the likelihood of overworking the dental professionals on staff,” the report said.

VitalCore blamed the unfilled staffing hours on employee “paid time off, sick time, military leave, staffing vacancies, and statewide dental professional shortages.” The company also claims there has been no reduction in dental services or any delay in providing care. But the legislative watchdog said the high percentages of unfilled staffing hours for dental professionals put “the contractor’s ability to provide quality dental care for inmates in question.”

The shortages have likely multiplied the workload for the current dental staff, the report added.

The watchdog also confirmed a Mississippi Today report from May, which revealed that MDOC requested over $4 million in paybacks from VitalCore due to staffing shortages. The agency requested back $500,000 specifically due to a shortage of dental professionals.

MDOC seeks money back from VitalCore if the required number of staffing hours falls below 90% for physicians, dentists, psychologists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants and below 85% for all other staff positions.

But other than monitoring VitalCore’s staffing levels, MDOC could not provide the watchdog with any documentation showing it was holding VitalCore accountable for potential failures to meet the terms of its contract.

The report found insufficient, inconsistent, mislabeled and missing data in VitalCore’s dental care records, which leaves oversight officials in the dark about whether prisoners are getting the dental care they need.

For example, dental sick call data was stored in a PDF format that wasn’t suitable for analysis, requiring manual counting and increasing the risk of error, the report said. Dental records were sometimes missing from patient charts, despite MDOC policy requiring such classification.

While the report acknowledges that Mississippi prisons have done enough to maintain accreditation, the lack of oversight “casts uncertainty on the quality of dental care VitalCore is providing to inmates and the internal mechanisms VitalCore utilizes to ensure quality.”

Mientras inmigrantes en el sureste de Louisiana y Mississippi se preparaban para una operación del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional en diciembre, Cristiane Rosales-Fajardo recibió una llamada desesperada de una amiga.

La inquilina guatemalteca de su amiga, quien no sabía que estaba embarazada, acababa de dar a luz a un bebé prematuro en una casa en Nueva Orleans. Los padres no tenían residencia legal, y la madre se negó a ir al hospital por miedo a ser detenida por agentes de inmigración federales.

“Hay sangre por todos lados, y el bebé está muerto”, recuerda Rosales-Fajardo que le dijo su amiga.

Rosales-Fajardo se puso las sandalias, agarró guantes quirúrgicos y corrió hacia la casa.

Inmigrante de Brasil, Rosales-Fajardo es organizadora comunitaria en Nueva Orleans Este, que concentra una gran comunidad inmigrante. No tiene formación médica formal, pero tiene experiencia asistiendo partos.

Al llegar, observó la habitación. Un niño de 3 años estaba de pie a un lado mientras la madre se sentaba al borde de la cama. El padre sostenía a su hijo recién nacido envuelto en toallas empapadas de sangre; el bebé no respiraba.

“El bebé estaba completamente gris”, dijo después Rosales-Fajardo.

Le limpió la boca y le frotó la espalda antes de hacerle pequeñas compresiones en el pecho y darle respiración boca a boca.

Le dijo a los padres que debía llamar al 911 para que la madre y el bebé recibieran atención en un hospital. El bebé ya había nacido, pero el parto aún no había terminado.

“Le aseguré que iba a estar a salvo, se lo prometí”, dijo Rosales-Fajardo.

El miedo se sentía en la habitación. Aun así, hizo la llamada y continuó con la reanimación. Finalmente, el bebé reaccionó y se movió en brazos de Rosales-Fajardo. Cuando llegó la ambulancia, la madre intentó evitar que su esposo la acompañara, aterrada de que arrestaran a ambos. Él fue de todos modos.

Poniendo la seguridad sobre la salud

“Estas son personas trabajadoras”, dijo Rosales-Fajardo. “Todo lo que hacen es trabajar para mantener a su familia. Pero estuvieron a punto de perder a su hijo por no llamar al 911”.

A casi dos semanas de iniciada la operación del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS, por sus siglas en inglés) llamada Catahoula Crunch, que comenzó el 3 de diciembre, profesionales de salud y defensores comunitarios en Louisiana y Mississippi reportan un aumento inusual de pacientes inmigrantes que se han salteado citas médicas y muestran altos niveles de estrés.

Según un comunicado de prensa, el DHS había arrestado a más de 250 personas hasta el 11 de diciembre. Aunque las autoridades federales aseguran que están enfocadas en detener a personas con antecedentes penales, la agencia Associated Press (AP) informó que la mayoría de las 38 personas detenidas en los primeros dos días del operativo en Nueva Orleans no tenían historial criminal.

Desde que el presidente Donald Trump asumió el cargo en enero, las familias inmigrantes en todo el país son más proclives a evitar o posponer la atención médica, en parte por preocupaciones relacionadas con su estatus migratorio, según una encuesta reciente de KFF y The New York Times.

La encuesta reveló que casi 8 de cada 10 inmigrantes que probablemente estén viviendo en Estados Unidos sin autorización legal dijeron haber experimentado efectos negativos en su salud este año, desde ansiedad y problemas de sueño hasta el empeoramiento de afecciones como presión arterial alta o diabetes.

Las redadas migratorias federales en California, Illinois, Carolina del Norte y ahora en Louisiana y Mississippi agravan las dificultades que estas familias ya enfrentan, como el acceso limitado a servicios, barreras lingüísticas, falta de seguro médico y altos costos.

Esa renuencia a recibir atención, incluso en casos de emergencia, parece justificada en medio de las redadas.

Según la Unión Estadounidense de Libertades Civiles (ACLU, por sus siglas en inglés), los hospitales y centros de salud generalmente deben permitir el acceso de agentes federales a las áreas abiertas al público. En California, este año, agentes federales se han apostado  en salas de espera de hospitales, se han presentado en clínicas comunitarias y han custodiado a personas detenidas en habitaciones de hospital.

Incluso ir o volver de una cita médica implica un riesgo, ya que las detenciones durante controles de tránsito son una práctica común de los agentes de migración.

La enfermera Terry Mogilles, del University Medical Center (UMC), dijo que los inmigrantes suelen representar al menos la mitad de los pacientes en su clínica de traumatología ortopédica en Nueva Orleans, muchos con lesiones graves relacionadas con el trabajo en la construcción que requieren cirugía. Pero ahora, Mogilles dijo que muchos de esos pacientes no van a sus citas de seguimiento, a pesar del riesgo de infecciones.

“Llamamos y no logramos comunicarnos”, dijo Mogilles. “Es muy angustiante porque no sabemos qué les está pasando después de la operación”.

El miedo se extiende en el sur

Las autoridades federales informaron que la operación Catahoula Crunch también se lleva a cabo en el sur de Mississippi, aunque la mayoría de los arrestos iniciales ocurrieron en el área metropolitana de Nueva Orleans. Las familias inmigrantes en todo Mississippi se están preparando para lo que se avecina.

Michael Oropeza, director ejecutivo de la organización El Pueblo, que presta servicios a comunidades inmigrantes de bajos ingresos en Biloxi y Forest, dijo que han visto a familias postergar atención médica, cancelar chequeos infantiles y dejar de surtir recetas.

“No es que no valoren su salud; es que no se sienten seguros”, afirmó Oropeza. “Cuando los hospitales y clínicas dejan de ser un lugar seguro, se pierde la confianza que tomó años construir. Puede desaparecer de la noche a la mañana”.

María, una residente de Biloxi originaria de Honduras, contó en español que ella y sus dos hijos han perdido citas médicas rutinarias porque están “aterrados” de salir de casa ante el aumento de la presencia de agentes federales de migración. Su esposo, quien tiene autorización para trabajar en Estados Unidos, fue detenido durante dos meses este año.

Sus hijos son ciudadanos estadounidenses. Antes tenían cobertura de Medicaid, pero María decidió darlos de baja hace tres años por miedo a que el uso de beneficios públicos afectara las solicitudes de residencia de su familia. Ahora pagan la atención médica de sus hijos de su propio bolsillo.

Cuando se sientan seguros de volver a salir, María dijo que su prioridad será buscar atención en salud mental para abordar el estrés que ha vivido su familia.

“Yo necesito visitar un médico definitivamente para que me chequee porque no me siento bien”, dijo, al describir su ansiedad, depresión e insomnio.

En Louisiana, Marcela Hernández, de Familias Unidas en Acción, una organización sin fines de lucro que brinda ayuda directa a inmigrantes, dijo que muchas de las familias con las que trabaja viven al día. Refugiarse en casa y perder días de trabajo solo aumenta el estrés. Hernández contó que recibió 800 llamadas pidiendo comida en solo dos días, de familias que tenían miedo de salir a la calle.

Según la agencia AP, la operación federal en Louisiana y Mississippi podría extenderse por más de dos meses. Cuanto más se prolongue, más teme Hernández que comience a haber desalojos, ya que las personas no podrán pagar el alquiler, lo que traumatizaría aún más a una comunidad que a menudo ha tenido que emprender viajes peligrosos para llegar a Estados Unidos, huyendo de situaciones difíciles en sus países de origen.

“No abandonas tu país sabiendo que vas a ser violada en el camino solo porque quieres venir a conocer a Mickey Mouse”, dijo.

Rosales-Fajardo, quien dirige una organización sin fines de lucro llamada El Pueblo NOLA, comentó que muchas familias le cuentan que sus hijos han comenzado a hacerse pis encima por el miedo y el estrés.

A nivel nacional, inmigrantes en situación migratoria irregular han reportado que algunos de sus hijos tienen problemas para dormir o cambios en el rendimiento escolar o en su conducta, según la encuesta de KFF y The New York Times.

Grupos comunitarios esperan que personas de la comunidad se movilicen para llevar alimentos y productos de higiene a los hogares de inmigrantes, y que profesionales de salud ofrezcan más visitas domiciliarias o por telemedicina.

Como en otros hospitales, las salas de espera del UMC son consideradas espacios públicos, explicó Mogilles. Pero el sindicato de enfermeras pide que el hospital establezca áreas seguras a las que los agentes federales no tengan acceso y políticas claras para proteger al personal de salud que a su vez cuida a los pacientes.

Las citas postoperatorias no pueden realizarse de forma virtual, por lo que los pacientes necesitan sentirse lo suficientemente seguros para venir, explicó Mogilles.

El cuidado prenatal y postnatal también es difícil de ofrecer de forma virtual, lo que pone en riesgo la salud de embarazadas o mujeres que han parido recientemente, explicó Latona Giwa, directora ejecutiva de Repro TLC, una organización nacional de capacitación en salud sexual y reproductiva.

Desde que comenzaron las redadas en Chicago en septiembre, Giwa dijo que las clínicas y proveedores con los que trabaja reportaron que el 30% de sus pacientes no habían ido a sus citas médicas. Las farmacias reportaron una caída del 40% en la recolección de medicamentos.

“Sabemos que en el manejo de afecciones crónicas, especialmente durante el embarazo, pero también en general, incluso faltar a una sola cita puede afectar el desarrollo de la afección y empeorar los resultados del paciente”, dijo Giwa.

En Louisiana, donde los resultados de salud materna ya son deficientes, el temor al arresto podría agravar una crisis que ya se intensificó con la anulación de Roe v. Wade y poner vidas en riesgo. Giwa está especialmente preocupada por las familias con bebés prematuros en la unidad de cuidados intensivos neonatales (NICU, por sus siglas en inglés).

“Imagínate que tu bebé está en el hospital, tan vulnerable, y tú tienes miedo de ir a verlo y cuidarlo porque temes ser deportada”, dijo, señalando que la salud de un recién nacido depende en parte de la presencia de sus padres.

Esa es la situación que enfrenta la familia guatemalteca en Nueva Orleans.

En un día reciente de diciembre, Rosales-Fajardo actuó como traductora y defensora de la familia durante su primera visita para ver a su hijo en la NICU, en un hospital en la zona norte del lago Pontchartrain. El personal les dijo a los padres que necesitarían hacer ese viaje largo y riesgoso varias veces durante al menos un mes, para brindar contacto piel con piel y leche materna.

Rosales-Fajardo condujo a los padres, quienes tenían miedo de cruzar el puente por su cuenta por temor a ser detenidos. Dijo que seguirá llevándolos las veces que sea necesario.

“Cuando ven a alguien hispano manejando o algo así, ya les parece sospechoso”, dijo sobre los agentes federales.

Pero el bebé está a salvo y saludable. Y los padres nombraron a Rosales-Fajardo como su madrina.

Gwen Dilworth de Mississippi Today y Christiana Botic de Verite News colaboraron con este artículo.