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A partir del primero de octubre, varios grupos de inmigrantes que residen legalmente en el país, entre ellos los refugiados y los solicitantes de asilo que no tienen un permiso de residencia  permanente, perderán cobertura de Medicaid (asistencia médica proporcionada por el gobierno) y del Programa de Seguro Médico Infantil, o CHIP, por sus siglas en inglés.  Estos cambios entrarán en vigor a raíz de la ley denominada One Big Beautiful Bill Act que promulgó el presidente Donald Trump el año pasado.  

Los expertos en la política de salud y las organizaciones que trabajan con los inmigrantes en Misisipi advierten que los cambios van a intensificar el temor que ya existe y que pueden forzar que los inmigrantes demoren buscar atención médica. A la larga, esto podría resultar en tratamientos médicos más costosos para enfermedades prevenibles y pueden crear más presión en un sistema de salud que ya está sobrecargado. 

“Estos grupos de inmigrantes quedarán con muy pocas opciones de cobertura médica a precios razonables,” dijo Drishti Pillai, la directora de La Politica de Salud para Inmigrantes de KFF, (antes conocida como la Fundación de la Familia Kaiser) una organización nacional e independiente dedicada a la política de salud.  La directora Pillai señala también las próximas restricciones a los planes subsidiados del Mercado de Seguros Médicos de la Ley de Cuidado de la Salud a Bajo Precio (Affordable Care Act Marketplace) y a Medicare.  A partir de enero, estas opciones quedarán limitadas únicamente a los tres grupos de inmigrantes que también seguirán reuniendo los requisitos para recibir Medicaid. 

¿Quiénes seguirán calificando y quiénes no?

Los titulares de una tarjeta de residencia permanente, también conocidos como residentes permanentes legales, seguirán reuniendo los requisitos para recibir Medicaid, el programa federal y estatal que proporciona seguro de salud gratuito o de bajo costo a personas de bajos ingresos. También conservarán el acceso a dichas prestaciones los inmigrantes procedentes de Cuba, de Haití y de las naciones insulares del Pacífico incluidas en el Pacto de Libre Asociación (Compact of Free Association, COFA, por sus siglas en inglés), un acuerdo internacional con los Estados Unidos. 

Sin embargo, varios grupos de inmigrantes en situaciones de vulnerabilidad van a perder acceso a la cobertura de Medicaid.  Ya no tendrán acceso a Medicaid los refugiados y los solicitantes de asilo que huyeron de sus países de origen por temor a la persecución y que han recibido protección humanitaria de los Estados Unidos.  Tampoco lo tendrán los supervivientes de violencia doméstica que tengan solicitudes de residencia permanente aprobadas o en trámite bajo la Ley de Violencia contra la Mujer (Violence Against Women Act, VAWA por sus siglas en inglés). Dicha ley creó una vía legal para obtener la residencia permanente para las mujeres que fueron víctimas de abuso por parte de quienes patrocinaban sus solicitudes de residencia.  

Los refugiados que llegan a los Estados Unidos están huyendo del terror y de la violencia en sus países de origen, afirmó Lorena Lewis-Quiroz, directora ejecutiva de la Alianza de Inmigrantes por la Justicia y la Equidad (Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, IAJE por sus siglas en inglés), una organización de defensa de los derechos de los inmigrantes con sede en Jackson.

“Estas personas ya vienen de estas situaciones atroces y ahora perderán el acceso a la asistencia médica básica.  No puedo creer que esto esté ocurriendo. ¿Me explico?”, afirmó ella.  “Esto está desmantelando poco a poco el sistema de atención médica para los inmigrantes.”

De igual manera, entre los inmigrantes que van a perder la capacidad de solicitar la asistenica médica incluyen los víctimas de la trata de personas, tal como la trata sexual y laboral, y los que tienen una visa T aprobaba o pendiente.  Este estatus provisional les permite a los inmigrantes solicitar la residencia permantente.  Otros grupos que van a perder Medicaid son:  

• Los inmigrantes a quienes se les concedió un permiso humanitario para permanecer en los Estados Unidos por un mínimo de un año;
• Los inmigrantes a quienes se les concedió la suspensión de deportación;
• Las personas nacidas en Canadá que son amerindios o miembros de tribus indígenas reconocidas por el gobierno federal;  
• Las personas mayores a quienes se les concedió admisión condicional antes de que surtiera efecto la Ley de Refugiados de 1980 (Refugee Act of 1980), incluidas las personas que huyeron de países comunistas de la Unión Soviética y de la Europa Oriental, así como también algunos refugiados procedentes del sudeste asiático.

En Misisipi, también perderán acceso algunos niños y adultas embarazadas que residen legalmente en los Estados Unidos. Algunos estados han optado por continuar la cobertura de estos grupos bajo la Ley para la Mejora de la Salud Infantil para Inmigrantes de 2009 (Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act, ICHIA) la cual elimina el período de espera de cinco años que muchos inmigrantes deben cumplir entre la obtención de la residencia permanente y su inscripción en Medicaid. Desde enero, 38 estados han optado por proporcionar cobertura médica a los niños con presencia legal en el país y 32 estados han hecho lo mismo para las personas embarazadas.  Misisipi ha optado por no cubrir ninguno de los dos grupos. 

“Los cambios a Medicaid son brutales y pueden impedir que los niños que reúnen los requisitos reciban cobertura si sus padres ya no pueden presentar solicitudes en nombre de sus hijos ciudadanos dado el estatus migratorio de los padres,” escribió por correo electrónico Kathy Sykes, la directora ejecutiva de la Alianza de los Derechos de Inmigrantes de Misisipi (Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, MIRA). Esta organización estatal proporciona servicios legales y sociales gratuitos a inmigrantes.  

“Hay tantos cambios provenientes del gobierno federal que pueden ser muy confusos y puede hacer que incluso las personas que califican para estos servicios decidan no solicitarlos,” dijo.    

Consecuencias más allá de la pérdida del seguro médico

A la directora Pillai le preocupan los efectos más amplios de perder el acceso a Medicaid y de los procesos de verificación—incluso para los inmigrantes que aún califican para recibir este programa.

Los estados deberán verificar el estatus migratorio de las personas cuya cobertura será cancelada. Esto se llevará a cabo a través de la base de datos Verificación Sistemática de Extranjeros para la Otorgación de Prestaciones (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, SAVE por sus siglas en inglés), del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de los Estados Unidos (Department of Homeland Security, DHS por sus siglas en inglés) y de la base de datos del seguro social. Si la agencia estatal encargada de Medicaid puede confirmar que una persona reúne los requisitos para recibir cobertura, esta conserverá su cobertura de Medicaid.  Si las autoridades no pueden verficar el estatus legal con la información que tienen, se les van a pedir información adicional a las personas afectadas y se les dará un plazo de 90 días para contestar.

Khaylah Scott, administradora de programas de Mississippi Health Advocacy Program (una organización de defensa de políticas de salud de Misisipi), dijo que las normas para calificar para Medicaid están vigentes desde hace 30 años, desde la Ley de Reforma del Bienestar Social de 1996. 

“Cuando se recibe poca comunicación por parte de la División de Medicaid y la primera noticia sobre estos cambios llega mediante una carta, eso puede resultar bastante repentino,” afirmó Scott. “Me imagino la confusión, el miedo que puede sentir alguien con tan solo recibir esta carta por correo y saber, en el fondo, que la razón principal es su estatus migratorio.”

El proceso de verificación puede ser confusa para los inmigrantes, en particular para los que no hablan inglés o los que hablan solo un poco de inglés.  Pillai dijo que las investigaciones previas han demostrado que las cancelaciones de cobertura también pueden afectar a las personas que se han mudado de domicilio o que, por alguna otra razón, no pudieron completar la documentación requerida.

“Todo esto puede provocar cancelaciones de cobertura, no debido al derecho de estar en el programa, sino por razones administrativas,” dijo ella.

La División de Medicaid de Misisipi no respondió a la solicitud de comentarios de  Mississippi Today sobre cómo se van a implementar estos cambios.  Un aviso público emitido el 14 de septiembre sobre una propuesta de modificación al plan estatal de Medicaid señal que “se predice [que la enmienda] no tendrá efecto en el presupuesto ya que el número de individuos afectados es bajo”; no obstante, no proporciona un número aproximado de cuántos inmigrantes se verán afectados.  

Los inmigrantes que ya no califican para recibir Medicaid o el Programa de Seguro Médico Infantil todavía pueden recibir cobertura mediante el Medicaid de Emergencia en ciertas circunstancias, como la aparición repentina de síntomas graves, que si no se tratan, pueden resultar en graves daños. Por ejemplo, una mujer embarazada que entra en trabajo de parto tiene cobertura en todos los estados. Ya que Misisipi no ha ampliado Medicaid, los criterios para recibir esta cobertura se limitan a un grupo más reducido de categorías.  Un adulto  indocumentado de bajos ingresos que no esté embarazado, que no sea padre o madre dentro de una categoría elegible y que no reúna los requisitos por una discapacidad no puede depender del Medicaid de Emergencia, aun si llegara a tener un acontecimiento que normalmente le permitiría recibir esta cobertura.  

A la larga, dijo Pillai, esta pérdida de cobertura médica podría provocar peores resultados de salud ya que muchas personas tienen que esperar hasta que las afecciones se vuelvan insoportables.

“Si las personas no tienen seguro de salud, entonces no reciben examenes de salud rutinarios y la falta de cuidado consistente puede provocar que estas personas dependan más de las salas de urgencias,” dijo ella.  “Esto puede causar más presión en los centros de salud de las comunidades ya que estos centros atienden a todos los pacientes sin importar el estado de inmigración y sin importar la abilidad de pagar.”

Lewis Quiroz anticipa un efecto similar:  “Va a ser otro caso de, ‘Pues, ¿sabes qué?  Voy a esperar hasta que me dé una embolia.’”

Este reportaje se produjo con el apoyo de los fondos de Sarah Yelena Haselhort para el Periodismo de Salud.

Corección (30 de septiembre de 2026):  Este artículo se ha actualizado para mencionar a la Alianza por los Derechos de los Inmigrantes de Misisipi, MIRA, (Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, MIRA, por sus siglás en inglés), la organización en donde Kathy Sykes es directora ejecutiva. 

Story translation provided by David Wood and Judith Caballero.

Three transgender women who have been detained for months at a male-only central Louisiana immigration detention center allege that they have faced abuse and transphobia at the hands of staff and other detainees.

In interviews with Verite News, they allege that they have been assaulted by officers, forcibly detransitioned, verbally harassed and kept in solitary confinement. 

“Everywhere they call us men, faggots, very offensive words,” Camila Toro de Paula, one of the detainees, told Verite News. The officers “let it happen. We don’t have a right to anything here; we trans women don’t have rights” at the facility, she added.

Two of the women — Estephany Rivas and Sofia — have spent months at Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena. The third, Camila Toro de Paula, has been there for more than a year. The three women are in protective custody, separated from other detainees. Verite is only using Sofia’s middle name because she is worried about the conditions at the detention center continuing or worsening.

The Trump administration forces trans women to be housed with men in detention centers. U.S. Immigration and Enforcement houses the women in solitary confinement for their protection, but the women say the isolation has not prevented them from enduring death threats, humiliating pat downs and physical abuse by staff.

The Jena facility is run by GEO Group — a for-profit corporation that is one of the country’s largest private prison operators — which has been criticized for its treatment of detainees. A 2024 report on ICE detention centers in Louisiana by Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and other leading human rights organizations recorded “systemic human rights abuses,” as they called it, at the facilities. At the Jena facility, they reported that there had been detainee deaths, people being shackled for more than 24 hours, contaminated food, filthy cells and bathrooms, physical abuse – such as spraying detainees with pepper spray, sexual harassment and assault, medical abuse and neglect, and the use of solitary confinement as retaliation.

Other organizations, such as Immigration Equality and Southeast Dignity Not Detention, have found similar conditions for detainees at the facility.

“There is nothing in the system that is built to recognize their full humanity as trans people, and now there’s no mechanisms in place to protect them from transphobic violence, from abuse of solitary confinement,” Mich González, a New Orleans-based immigrant rights attorney who has represented trans women in detention, said about the Trump administration ending protections for transgender detainees.

The three women had all been living in the U.S. for several years. Like most immigrant detainees, they do not have active criminal charges against them. Rivas had misdemeanor traffic offenses that were resolved before her detention, according to court records and her attorney Mauricio Sierra. Toro de Paula had one previous conviction for a low-level misdemeanor as well as two felony charges stemming from a 2025 arrest that were dismissed, according to her attorney and a New York Times report.

Border Patrol detains woman in Mississippi

Media reports and court records also show that Toro de Paula, who is Venezuelan, and Rivas, who is Honduran, were taken by ICE agents in New York and in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, respectively, then taken to Central Louisiana. Sofia was taken by Border Patrol agents in Mississippi and transferred to ICE custody before being sent to Central Louisiana.

They are seeking asylum in the U.S. after facing death threats and attempted rapes in their home countries due to being transgender, and at least one has been persecuted by cartels.

It is not uncommon for people to be detained for months in poor conditions, but as the experience of these detainees, which has been corroborated by legal documents, records from the detention facility, medical records, interviews with the detainees’ attorneys and emails from the attorneys to the facility indicate, LGBTQIA+ immigrants face additional discrimination on the basis of their sexual and gender identity — often the very reason they are seeking asylum in the United States. Transgender women in particular are at a high-risk of gendered and sexual abuse due to being housed in male-only facilities.

Verite News reviewed court documents, emails, medical records and incident reports from their time at the Central Louisiana facility, and spoke with the women and their attorneys.

“What they are doing to us is torture,” Toro de Paula said.

The women say that they’ve faced physical abuse because they have refused to undergo pat downs and strip searches that expose their bodies in front of male guards. 

According to a June 25 incident report, a group of guards — which included men and at least one woman — approached Rivas and asked her to stand up and submit to a pat down. It is not clear from the report why they were searching her. The female guard said she touched Rivas’ shoulder. The officer then alleged that Rivas “aggressively turned towards me swinging his arm around.” Rivas turned around, “swung the towel in his hand, striking my neck, and said ‘Don’t fucking touch me,’” according to the officer. The report refers to Rivas using he/him/his pronouns instead of her preferred pronouns.

The guard went on to say that another Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) member at the facility put her in the prone position and handcuffed her.

On June 26, a “Unit Disciplinary Committee Report of Findings and Actions” written by a member of the Unit Disciplinary Committee — tasked with investigating incident reports — detailed Rivas’ account of the incident. Verite News has part of the report and requested the full document from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has yet to respond.

According to the report, Rivas “stated his shirt began to rise, that’s when he told the officer ‘Don’t touch me.’”  In an interview with the committee, Rivas said that she refused to be searched because there were several men present, and she denied that she ever hit the officer with a towel. Rivas said that “a view of camera footage” would show she never swung a towel.

‘They threw me to the ground’

“They threw me to the ground, and all the men were on top of me. (The female sergeant) tried to lift up my shirt to search me. And I told her, ‘No, no, don’t touch me — don’t touch me because I don’t want you to lift up my shirt,’” Rivas alleged in an interview with Verite News. 

Sofia also alleged she had previously allowed the same female guard to search her, but after Rivas was restrained, the guard pushed her against the wall again, taunted her and pulled her hair.

“After they punished (Rivas), she slammed me against the wall again and searched me once more,” Sofia alleged. “‘No touch you?’ ‘No touch you?’,” she’d say to me. She was kind of trying to make me angry to see if I’d do something so she could punish me too. And I told her, ‘It’s okay.’ I told her. And she grabbed my hair and pulled it.”

According to the disciplinary report document, the findings were based on the credibility of the officer, the investigation report and Rivas’ version of the incident. Although only Rivas’ testimony is available in the document, DHS said that “all staff provided the required documentation for the incident” and that a use of force review “was conducted by GEO and ICE Leadership and found to be justified.”

Verite News provided Sarah Decker, a senior staff attorney at the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center Center, with the reports. Decker said that the description of Rivas’ arrest as her being “assisted to the prone position and handcuffed by another CERT member” was a “sanitized” way to describe a takedown — when officers use force to place someone face-down on the floor. 

“We’ve had a number of clients who have been beaten and permanently disabled by takedowns, so we routinely see that they’re not actually following the use of force guidelines; that they’re using an indiscriminate amount of force when they’re taking people down,” Decker said.

ICE’s own National Detention Standards handbook classifies a “take-down” as a “hard technique” and stipulates that “officers should first issue verbal commands” because it carries a high risk of injury. 

Decker also pointed out the CERT members, who handcuffed Rivas, typically have high-risk security training and are brought in for takedowns.

Rivas’ attorney Mauricio Sierra, who is challenging her detention and seeking her release through a habeas corpus lawsuit, confirmed her account.

“There was no justifiable reason to … attack my client, to confine my client in that way, ” Sierra said. Sierra added that when he met with her, she was in a yellow-colored jumpsuit, a change from her blue-colored jumpsuit, indicating that the facility was classifying her as a higher level threat to the guards at the detention center. DHS confirmed her uniform color was changed because the charge of “Assault on Staff” is more severe. 

Due to the conflicting allegations, Rivas was scheduled to have a hearing with an investigative panel on June 29. She alleges that the hearing never took place and that the video footage of the incident she requested was not handed over, while DHS says that the hearing did take place and she provided a verbal statement using the translator line. It is not clear from the documents available to Verite if there were additional findings as a result of the investigation. 

Decker added that, in her experience working on use of force cases at detention centers, it is extremely difficult for detainees to hold officers responsible.

“The accounts of the detained people are the most reliable source of information. The video footage is great, but you often can’t get it, and I think the officers’ accounts are just not accurate,” Decker said. Verite asked for the video but it was not provided at the time of publication.

Protective custody

Beyond the allegations of physical abuse, the detainees said they have suffered emotionally from months of isolation.

At the detention facility in Jena, the women are confined in administrative segregation for their protection because they are transgender. It is the same unit as disciplinary segregation, where people are sent for infractions. Both administrative and disciplinary segregation are types of solitary confinement.

Experts, including the United Nations, say that any type of prolonged solitary confinement amounts to torture, despite its use being widespread in the U.S.

“They say that where they’re keeping us here for our protection, but this isn’t protection, it’s torture,” Sofia said.

Detainees in administrative segregation are supposed to have greater privileges to those who are there for disciplinary reasons, such as getting more time in the yard or being able to use a tablet, but court documents indicate they are still locked up for twenty hours a day.

And the women at the Jena detention center also allege that the few privileges they have are curtailed arbitrarily. According to medical records, Sofia once suffered a mental health crisis due to an officer cutting off time outside her cell.

“Sofia approached the sergeant with the intent to explain how she and other queer detainees felt this was discriminatory,” a psychologist who, in coordination with Humanitarian Outreach for Migrant Emotional Health, provided a mental health evaluation for Sofia’s asylum case. “According to Sofia, the sergeant told her to ‘shut up,’ followed by ‘shut your mouth.’”

“She went to her cell, grabbed a razor, and ‘cut (her)self, just to feel relief,’” the report continued.

“Sofia elaborated that the superficial ‘scratch’ relieved her frustration,” the psychologist wrote. “She believes there is a difference between clinical symptoms of depression and her experience of being ‘rightfully stressed for being (detained) so long under unfair conditions.’”

DHS responded that both Central Louisiana facility staff and medical staff deny the incident occurred, despite their own records showing Sofia had been transferred to a mental health hospital for self-harm. 

Jeremy Jong, a staff attorney with the immigration advocacy nonprofit Al Otro Lado, told Verite News that detention centers are not equipped to deal with detainees who have complex needs, and often opt to simply place people in solitary confinement.

Additionally, DHS responded that “recreation privileges have never been revoked, and that they are offered recreation daily,” but that the women have at times been moved from the general population yard to the Special Management Unit due to rules infractions.

Despite being in protective custody, the women have faced transphobic abuse and threats from other detainees, they allege. In emails reviewed by Verite News from November and December 2025, Laura Berger, an immigration staff attorney at The Legal Aid society representing Toro de Paula, repeatedly wrote to the Jena facility’s supervisory detention and deportation officer, Christopher Rabe, about a detainee who continually verbally harassed and threatened Toro de Paula.

“One of the other detainees in her unit attempted to assault her and loudly accused her of having AIDS. The detainee threatened to harm my client and said that he had killed people before,” Berger wrote in the email. Although the facility provides a way for detainees to make complaints, Berger says that staff either brushed off Toro de Paula’s complaints or are unable to understand the threats since they were made in Spanish.

When asked for comment, DHS responded that the allegations were “FALSE” and that “no staff at (Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center) witnessed the conduct being described by Toro de Paula’s attorney.” However, emails from Rabe to Berger acknowledge the facility had to separate the other detainee from Toro de Paula.

The agency also said that “staff cannot control what other detainees may verbalize,” but “they are trained to hold detainees accountable for misconduct should it occur with internal disciplinary reports.” 

Forced detransition and medical neglect  

All three women say they are being denied treatment for medical ailments like stomach aches, blood in their urine and skin rashes, and are also denied trans health care.

When asked for comment, DHS responded that detainees “have been sent to see a urologist on multiple occasions and other specialists as part of their care plan.” The agency added that it “is the best healthcare many aliens have received in their entire lives” and that “meals are certified by dieticians.” The women also allege that the food is contaminated, undercooked and inedible.

The facility had at least two deaths that were due to an improper medical response, according to a 2017 investigation by the DHS’ Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

While medical neglect is widespread in detention facilities nationwide, specifically denying trans health care fits into a nationwide trend of forced detransition in detention centers.

At Central Louisiana, Sofia and Rivas say that they are being denied hormone replacement therapy, which they both were taking before they were detained. According to a DHS statement to Verite News, DHS segregates the women by biological sex because of Trump’s 2025 executive order. The order also explicitly states that the Bureau of Prisons and federal funds cannot be “expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”

The women also say that they are also being denied feminine clothes and makeup, both of which would help them feel more comfortable in their bodies.

“They don’t let us wear makeup, so what we do is use a pencil to paint on our faces. Just because we do that, they get mad and report us. What harm are we doing to them by” using pencils to replace makeup, Rivas said.

DHS says the allegations that undergarments have been changed is false. Regarding their use of colored pencils as makeup, DHS says that “detainees are not permitted to utilize colored pencils outside their intended use” because it is considered contraband.

“(Detention) is now encouraged because mistreating people puts them in a more desperate situation, to then seek voluntary departure and under duress give up legal rights they may have to stay in the country,” Nora Ahmed, who is ACLU of Louisiana’s legal director, told Verite News.

Transgender immigrants in detention

The women at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center who are alleging transphobic harassment, physical and emotional abuse aren’t the only ones in Louisiana in recent years.

In 2023, Vicky, a transgender woman who was detained in Pine Prairie ICE Detention Center — also operated by the GEO Group — filed a civil rights complaint describing the culture of the facility. In a press release announcing the filing of the complaint, the group Immigrant Justice said the facility had a “culture of transphobia, harassment and medical negligence.”

In September 2025, the ACLU of Louisiana, Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center and the National Immigration Project filed complaints on behalf of four immigrants who were detained at the South Louisiana ICE Detention Center in Basile — also run by the GEO Group. The complaints alleged that two trans men and one nonbinary person, all housed in a female-only facility, were subject to sexual abuse, forced labor, retaliation and denial of medical care. 

And this type of alleged mistreatment is happening in other states as well. A 2016 Human Rights Watch report that included interviews with former trans detainees, found that they were subjected to abusive strip searches in front of male guards, and a peer-reviewed study that analyzed ICE audits found that strip searches of transgender detainees occurred in violation of ICE policy from 2014 to 2019 in at least three states: Washington, Arizona and California.

Yet, it is difficult to estimate how many people are affected by transphobic abuse in immigrant detention centers. 

Under the second Trump administration, ICE is excluding the number of transgender detainees from constitutionally-mandated detention center reports. The last report issued by the Biden administration in January 2025 recorded that there were 47 transgender people in immigration detention. But according to the Vera Institute of Justice, the government is not counting transgender people due to the administration’s hostility towards trans people’s lives and rights.

The 2025 executive order that President Donald Trump signed equated gender with biological sex and mandated federal agencies to remove “all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages” which recognized transgender and gender non-conforming people. The order also prohibited trans women from being housed in women’s prisons or detention centers. In effect, they can only be housed in male facilities. 

Shortly after, the 2015 “Transgender Care Memorandum” was taken offline. It was last available in February 2025 from ICE’s website, according to the Internet Archive. The memo — signed by Tom Homan, then the executive director for ICE under the Obama administration — established basic care requirements for transgender detainees. (Homan is now Trump’s “border czar.”) For example, it mandated limiting solitary confinement to 72 hours, to consider placing a detainee in housing consistent with their gender identity, and to conduct strip searches in private, among other rules. Additionally, contracts with some detention facilities had their transgender care requirements removed. 

While past complaints indicate that these transgender care requirements were often violated by facilities, the memo still gave trans detainees a degree of recognition, as well as a way to challenge discriminatory treatment. 

“We know that the government is making it impossible to even be yourself in prison,” Déa Thatcher, an organizer with Trans & Queer Community Fund, a mutual aid group that provides commissary support for trans immigrant detainees, said. “When I tell you the amount of times I’ve gotten on a video with someone and they have put their hands over their face because they don’t want me to see their beard, it’s like they are being forced to look a certain way and present a certain way.”

‘I am practically signing my death warrant‘

According to Rivas’ habeas corpus petition, she is seeking asylum due to being targeted by the Honduran Los Zetas cartel, who she claims murdered her brothers after she refused to traffic drugs for them. She had been harassed by them for years due to being transgender, the petition says. Mexican cartel members later kidnapped and assaulted Rivas on her journey to the U.S.-Mexico border. 

“If I go back to my country, I am practically signing my death warrant,” Rivas said. 

Sofia and Toro de Paula are also seeking asylum after being subjected to transphobic physical violence in their home countries. They both had their asylum petitions denied and are appealing the decision.

“In general, trans women had a shot at winning (asylum) because of how our asylum laws are written and because trans people are targeted in many countries for being trans,” Jong told Verite News.

But immigration detention makes it harder for their legal team to prepare an asylum case or an appeal because they can only meet with detainees for a few hours each week, making it more difficult to prepare a strong case.  It is then much more likely that they will lose their case and be deported. 

“You have to collect all this evidence, where your main person to help you is locked up, with little to no access to the outside world, and where everyone outside is grappling with their absence,” immigration attorney Mich González said. He added that immigrants have cases that could determine life or death, yet are being tried in an administrative court inside a facility that is actively harming people.

The women could be detained indefinitely. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a case determining whether immigrants can be denied bond and kept in detention while they challenge their removal. If the court rules in favor of the Trump administration, the women will have no clear path out of immigration detention, barring deportation or being allowed to legally remain in the country. 

“We want them to treat us with dignity and to treat the next trans people who come to this center well, with respect,” Rivas said.

Mississippi Blood Services is calling on all eligible donors to give blood as it struggles with a severe supply shortage.

Donors of every blood type are needed.

Kasey Dickson, Mississippi Blood Services director of marketing and public relations, explained that it’s normal for donations to drop during the summer. However, MBS isn’t sure what’s causing the ongoing slowdown.

Mississippi’s blood shortage is part of a national problem. The American Red Cross, America’s Blood Centers and the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies released a joint statement in July calling for more donations to help the nation’s strained blood supply.

MBS needs 250 blood donations and 40 platelet donations daily to maintain a healthy supply. Dickson said the amount of donations it currently receives daily is “not anywhere near that.” 

“Blood cannot be made in a tube,” Dickson said. “The only way that blood can be provided to other individuals in need is if individuals themselves donate it.”

Mississippi Blood Services provides blood products to over 50 hospitals statewide, as well as ambulance and helicopter services that transport to rural communities. This includes whole blood, platelets and more.

MBS collects products at facilities in Flowood, Oxford and with mobile collection units. 

Eligible donors can walk in or schedule an appointment. People can find information on eligibility on MBS’ website and by calling 601-981-3232. 

MBS recommends donors prepare by eating a healthy meal and drinking plenty of fluids. Donors will be given an onsite health screening, which includes a questionnaire and a mini-physical. 

Once blood is collected, it gets tested for its blood type, red blood cell antibodies and undergoes nucleic acid amplification testing. It’s also screened for infections, including HIV-1 and hepatitis B. After testing and processing, it’s ready to be delivered to hospitals in need.

MBS has been spreading the word about the need for donations, as well as holding special promotions. For Breast Cancer Awareness Donor Appreciation Week, people who donate at the Flowood and Oxford centers can receive a free T-shirt and car magnet while supplies last through Friday.

An Alabama man has become the fifth person charged in federal court with making threats related to Nolan Xavier Wells’ death investigation. 

Claude Henry Bates Jr., 41, of Montomery is accused of sending death and bomb threats to the Jackson County sheriff’s and coroner’s offices on Sept. 25 — days after a Jackson County grand jury declined to indict anyone in the death of Wells, according to court records. The 18-year-old’s body was found on July 6 on Horn Island.

Also, after weeks of threatened lawsuits over alleged defamation, three friends who were with Wells on Horn Island on July 4 filed a complaint Monday in federal court against former NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens. 

In a Sept. 26 post on X, Owens shared an Instagram video featuring Wells’ friends Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour that suggested they deleted evidence from Wells’ phone after he died. Owens added the message: “Arrest them immediately!!! Like yesterday” in all capital letters. 

A day earlier, the legal team representing Wells’ family held a press conference with Andrew Garrett, the forensic expert whose company was hired to inspect Wells’ phone. Garrett said that Snapchat messages were deleted off the phone but later clarified that other users can delete or recall messages. He added that other people did not unlock Wells’ phone after he last used it. 

The friends denied the allegation in the lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of Mississippi. The lawsuit represents one side of a legal argument. 

“Nolan Wells’ accident death at the Island was indeed a tragedy beyond measure. However, Warren, Jax, and Morgan played no role whatsoever in Nolan’s tragic death. Any accusations or suggestions that they murder their dear friend or took steps to cover up his murder are categorically false and now an intentional lie,” the complaint reads.

Owens attended Wells’ funeral and contributed $25,000 in reward money for information that would lead to an arrest or conviction in the case. 

He was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.  

Attorneys representing the friends previously said they plan to sue other public figures who they say have defamed them, including the Rev. Al Sharpton and “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin. 

The trial of two former Capitol Police officers accused of unlawfully opening fire on a car and shooting a passenger in the head has been delayed for at least the ninth time, Hinds County Courthouse staff said.

The white former officers, Michael Lamar Rhinewalt and Jeffery Walker Jr., each face up to two decades in prison if convicted of aggravated assault charges. They are accused of shooting at two Black people in August 2022 as they were driving through downtown Jackson, leaving passenger Sherita Harris with “permanent neurological and facial injuries,” according to a civil lawsuit she filed against them.

The officers were set to stand trial on the criminal charge Monday, but the courtroom stood locked and empty, and court records did not immediately give a reason for the delay.

Hinds County Circuit Judge Adrienne Wooten pushed the trial back at the request of the officers’ attorneys, according to De’Vone Cole, a Hinds County sheriff’s officer at the court. But at the time of the trial, the circuit clerk’s office said it had no record of the request or rescheduling. A new date had not been set for the trial in court records.

Wooten’s deputy court administrator, Tandra Thompson, initially told Mississippi Today that she wasn’t aware of anyone on staff who knew why the trial didn’t start — even though the court was responsible for setting its date under the rules issued by the state Supreme Court. Thompson then said scheduling information was confidential to the defense and prosecution, even though it is public record under state law.

The defense and prosecutors did not answer Mississippi Today’s calls to confirm why the trial did not happen. 

This will be the second criminal trial tied to a record year of shootings by Capitol Police, both against Rhinewalt. In the first trial, which was rescheduled six times before ending last week, he avoided a manslaughter conviction in the shooting and killing of a 25-year-old Black man, Jaylen Lewis, during a traffic stop a month after Harris’ shooting. 

After the majority-Black jury deadlocked on whether Rhinewalt was guilty, the state attorney general’s office dropped the case against him, writing, “the benefit of the doubt goes to our law enforcement officers.” The jury in that trial acquitted another former Capitol Police officer, Steven Frederick Jr. 

Cole said Rhinewalt’s second trial would begin in December at the earliest — nearly two years after it was initially scheduled. Court records show the trial has been delayed at least eight other times since it was first scheduled for March 2025.

Trial previously delayed after ‘conflict of interest’

One delay came after Judge Wooten barred the attorney general’s office from prosecuting the case because of an unprecedented “conflict of interest which gravely undermines the integrity and fairness of the proceedings.”

While the attorney general’s office was pursuing a criminal case against the two officers for opening fire on Harris, it was also defending the pair against a $3 million federal lawsuit Harris filed for shooting her and violating her constitutional rights. 

“This inconsistency is not merely theoretical — it strikes at the heart of fairness and undermines the core ethical obligations owed to clients and to the judicial process,” Wooten wrote in May 2025.

The attorney general’s office argued that separate divisions were handling the cases and that there was no evidence of “improper influence” on the grand jury that indicted both officers in the shooting. But ultimately, the office of Lin Carter, the district attorney of Forrest and Perry counties, took over prosecution of the aggravated assault case.

Until the criminal case comes to an end, Harris’ lawsuit is on hold.

The case marks a rare criminal proceeding against officers for shooting at civilians. In the entire history of Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s Office reviewing these cases, the office said it has found four incidents not “justified,” including in the killing of Lewis.

In that case, the attorney general’s office still handled the prosecution against Rhinewalt, despite defending him in Harris’ lawsuit.

Why was Harris shot? Officers’ and victims’ versions sharply diverge

The former officers — who were with Capitol Police’s crime suppression Flex Unit — and the victims have given starkly different accounts of the moments that ended with a bullet in Harris’ skull.

In her lawsuit, Harris alleged that the shooting occurred after the friend she was riding with, Sinatra Jordan, “complied” with the officers’ commands to pull over while the two were waiting for a traffic light to turn green. But “shortly” after, the lawsuit stated, Rhinewalt opened fire on Jordan’s silver Nissan Rogue as it tried to drive away to “escape the constant firing of bullets.”

Rhinewalt was believed to be the officer who shot Harris in the head, according to her lawsuit, leaving her with permanent memory loss, a partially paralyzed face and damaged sight and hearing. Walker did not shoot at the car but did admit to opening fire on Jordan once he exited the vehicle, the lawsuit stated.

After the shooting, Jordan survived and was arrested. A month later, Walker admitted in a hearing that both officers opened fire on the car, but only after Jordan ran a red light, fled a traffic stop, led them on a car chase throughout downtown and then shot at them first, sparking a gun battle that ended in a residential neighborhood.

Walker testified that no bullets struck the officers’ patrol car and no gun was found in Jordan’s vehicle. He also said he saw objects being thrown from the car during the chase, but none of these items were found.

Jordan ultimately pleaded guilty to fleeing police. He was also accused of shooting at the officers and charged with aggravated assault, but that charge was dropped last year.

The shooting was one of four by Capitol Police officers in 2022 — more than any other law-enforcement agency in the state. The spike came as the Legislature expanded the force’s reach throughout Jackson in an effort to address record homicide rates.

Harris wrote in her lawsuit that the shooting left her not only with physical injuries but also “severe emotional distress” and “mental trauma,” including panic attacks, anxiety and depression. She argued that “any reasonable police officer” in Rhinewalt and Walker’s position would have known they had a “duty” to “prevent harm” to her, as an “innocent bystander.”

In response to Harris’ lawsuit, both officers denied wrongdoing, arguing that they acted “at all times” in line with “proper policing procedures” and “in good faith.”

Case continues legal trouble for both former officers

Harris’ shooting adds to the legal trouble both former officers face from their service with Capitol Police.

During last month’s manslaughter trial, Rhinewalt admitted he shot Lewis in the head during a traffic stop, killing him. He told jurors the killing was in self defense, as he believed Lewis was trying to run officers over with his Jeep Grand Cherokee.

But the passenger riding with Lewis, Selena Hayes, testified the pair didn’t know they were being stopped by officers, who were not in typical uniforms and were driving unmarked police cars. As a result, she said, Lewis was trying to drive around the officers, rather than to run them over.

While Rhinewalt avoided another trial after the attorney general’s office dropped the manslaughter case against him, he still faces a $75,000 wrongful death suit from Lewis’ family in federal court. He denied the lawsuit’s allegations.

In December, Walker pleaded guilty in federal court to violating a man’s civil rights during a traffic stop just weeks before Harris’ shooting by slamming the man’s head into his car and kicking him in the head and face while he was handcuffed and under control. But he filed a motion to withdraw his plea in August on the day he was scheduled to be sentenced — when he faced up to a decade in prison — because of “newly discovered evidence.”

His then-attorney, Arthur Calderón, wrote that the week before Walker was set to be sentenced, the former officer received pictures from Capitol Police that “contradict” federal prosecutors’ claims that he injured the man, who was identified in court records as E.S. As a result, Walker asserted his innocence and requested a trial.

Federal prosecutors say the photos, which were “reportedly” provided by Rhinewalt, show E.S. handcuffed and on the ground with a swollen and discolored face. The prosecution argued Walker was still guilty, as the defense “fails entirely” to explain how the photos — which were not new evidence — demonstrated his innocence. 

U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate has not ruled on whether the photos are enough evidence to overcome the former officer’s guilty plea and warrant a trial.

Phil Buffington, a Madison attorney involved in conservative politics and chairman of the Mississippi Tort Claims Board, announced on Tuesday that he will run for state auditor next year in the Republican primary. 

Buffington, a partner at Balch and Bingham LLP, advises financial institutions throughout the country. He said in a news release that he plans to campaign on fraud prevention, regulatory accountability and stronger cybersecurity standards for state financial systems.

“I’m running for Mississippi state auditor because I believe the people of Mississippi deserve a person who wants to make sure your tax dollars are not wasted or stolen and a government that is transparent, accountable, and responsible with every taxpayer dollar,” Buffington said. 

Current Auditor Shad White has said he’s considering running for governor and not planning to seek reelection as auditor. 

Sen. Daniel Sparks, a Republican from Belmont, and former Rep. Nick Bain, a Republican from Corinth, have also said they’re running for auditor. No Democratic candidate has announced a run. Party primaries for statewide offices will take place in August 2027. 

Buffington graduated from the University of Mississippi and Mississippi College School of Law, now Mississippi Christian University School of Law. He serves on the Mississippi Republican Party State Executive Committee and the Madison County Republican Executive Committee. 

Candidates who have announced they are running for state office in 2027 include: 

Governor: 

Lynn Fitch (R)

Andy Gipson (R)

Philip Gunn (R)

Priscilla Williams Till (D)

Lieutenant governor: 

Michael Watson (R)

Secretary of state: 

Shuwaski Young (R)

Attorney general: 

Sean Tindell (R)

State auditor: 

Nick Bain (R)

Phil Buffington (R)

Daniel Sparks (R)

Even though state Sen. Johnny DuPree was elected last year to represent portions of Forrest and Lamar counties in the Legislature, he’s now trying to represent a new area of the state. 

DuPree announced on Monday that he’s qualifying to run in a special election in November to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Juan Barnett, a Democrat from Heidlburg who resigned last month. 

The reason DuPree is qualifying to run for a new Senate seat is that Secretary of State Michael Watson directed local election officials to revert to legislative districts adopted by the Legislature in 2022, which had been changed in 2025. 

When Barnett resigned, Gov. Tate Reeves ordered a special election to fill Barnett’s vacant seat under the 2022 district lines, which contain portions of Forrest, Jasper and Jones counties. 

A federal three-judge panel ruled in 2024 that the parts of the state’s 2022 district maps violated the federal Voting Rights Act and required the state to create more majority-Black districts.

The Legislature redrew the lines again in 2025 to comply, which created a majority-Black House district in northeastern Mississippi, a majority-Black Senate seat in Hattiesburg and a majority-Black Senate seat in DeSoto County. 

But the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the three-judge panel’s decision on the state legislative districts in light of the high court’s landmark Louisiana v. Callais decision that rolled back racial discrimination protection during redistricting, leaving the status of Mississippi’s legislative districts in flux.  

This will be the second special election in two years that DuPree has participated in because of redistricting lawsuits. 

“Here we go again,” DuPree jokingly told Mississippi Today. 

The state branch of the NAACP, represented by several civil rights legal advocacy groups, asked a three-judge panel to prevent Watson from reverting the districts to the 2022 maps, but U.S. District Judges Daniel Jordan and Sul Ozerden and U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick declined. 

Now that the federal courts have cleared the way for Watson to unilaterally change legislative districts without action from the Legislature, it’s unclear what this means for a potential special legislative session to, again, redraw legislative districts. 

Gov. Tate Reeves has said he will likely call lawmakers into a special session this fall to redraw congressional, legislative and state Supreme Court districts before the end of the year, something Democrats have strongly opposed.  

DuPree’s predicament raises a range of questions about which lawmakers can participate in a potential special session and if it’s legal for legislators elected in 2025 under new maps to represent older districts drawn in 2022.

“This is not fair to the people who are going to vote to replace Sen. Barnett,” DuPree said. “It’s not fair to the people of Forrest County. Nothing about this is fair.”

Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful ideas to be shared about our state’s past, present and future. Opinions expressed in guest essays are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Mississippi Today. You can read more about the section here.   

Every county reports a clearance rate for death investigations, and every county can defend the rate in a budget hearing. Whether anyone believes the finding is a separate question, and no jurisdiction tracks the answer.

Nolan Wells was 18. On July 4th he went to Horn Island, an uninhabited barrier island off the Mississippi coast, with high school friends. He was, according to accounts, the only Black person on the boat and the last one back to it. The others left without him, and his body was found in the water two days later.

Recently, a Jackson County grand jury returned a no true bill after reviewing witness testimony, physical and digital evidence, GPS records and cellphone data. It found insufficient evidence for criminal charges and none of racially motivated wrongdoing.

It also recorded non-fatal bruising on the back of the teenager’s head, of undetermined origin. The state medical examiner and the pathologist the family hired both recorded the cause and manner of death as undetermined.

Mississippi convened the grand jury process, ran it and published the results. It still cannot say how Nolan Xavier Wells died. The process ends there by design. Its obligations ended the day the report was published. How the teenager died is now an orphaned question, belonging to whoever volunteers to pursue it.

History of racial violence

The Equal Justice Initiative has counted more than 4,400 racial terror lynchings of Black people across 20 states between 1877 and 1950, most in daylight, most with local officials condoning what they had not organized. Congress made lynching a federal hate crime in 2022.

My grandfather came home from the First World War still a private. Decades later at Skene, Mississippi in the early 1960s he lent money to white neighbors and asked to be repaid. A mob took him for it. He lived through the night and died within the year. The county charged no one.

Redlining did the same work with paper and left a cleaner file. The federal government graded neighborhoods by race and withheld credit from the ones it marked. Municipalities executed the grades in zoning and investment, and the mortality tables record what followed.

The United Nations Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes asks a narrow question, and the narrowness is the point. It sets aside announced intentions and asks whether a state inflicts on a group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s destruction in part, and whether officials protect the pattern while it runs. My doctoral research applies the Framework to United States’ spatial policy and evidences genocide by attrition against African Descendants of American Slavery, or ADAS (Rosenberg, 2012). The Framework is the United Nations’ instrument rather than mine, and anyone who disputes the finding may apply it to the same record and publish a different one.

The serious objection deserves its strongest form. Fair housing in 1968, hate crime statutes after it, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act closing a gap the earlier laws left open, and here a grand jury convening, reviewing and publishing within 10 weeks.

Then look at what gets counted. The FBI records the hate crimes police agencies choose to report. The Bureau of Justice Statistics, which asks victims directly, counted roughly 246,900 hate crime victimizations a year between 2005 and 2019. When a repair leaves its own measurement voluntary, enforcement falls to whoever holds the file.

Byron D’Andra Orey, who studies racial trauma at Jackson State University, told Mississippi Today in July people were reading the case of Nolan Wells as another event in which Black bodies do not matter, and that repeated exposure keeps the cycle turning. He is measuring one end of the rope, and the other end goes unmeasured.

Resilience debt, a term I introduced in work now under submission, accumulates where the harm was absorbed and surfaces in wealth, mortality and environmental exposure. The rehumanization deficit accumulates in the population trained to administer it, the population taught to look away. No measurement instrument exists for it yet, and I say so before a reviewer says it for me.

A budget office should care about the second deficit for a practical reason. A population convinced a group’s disadvantage is the group’s own doing will withhold the money required to change the structure, and the money is precisely what the first deficit needs before it can be addressed. The second gates the first. What is being asked for is the recovery of a capacity every working democracy requires: the ability to see the people it governs. This one is measurably losing it. Berwick Mahdi Davenport, who directs the Human Solidarity Project, has spent three decades doing the repair in rooms rather than in journals. He puts it in one line: “The inner work and the outer work are not separable.”

Calls for independent review

Institutions can be retrained on a schedule, and I have done it. Seattle Public Schools came to the work after community uproar over its treatment of Black boys, which is why the policy exists and why it reads as a response to harm rather than as an equity initiative. The district retained my firm to author its anti-racism policy and the superintendent procedures beneath it.

I built them from more than 50 focus groups and interviews reaching every population the district served, on a peer-to-peer method I adapted from the door-to-door canvass W. E. B. Du Bois and Isabel Eaton ran for “The Philadelphia Negro” in 1899. 

The policy carries 100 deliverables, each assigned to a role and each carrying a key performance indicator, because awareness training never reaches a referral and an assignment does. Seattle adopted it in 2020, and King County, the city of Seattle and Washington State Charter Schools adopted it afterward.

Here is the same logic outside a school district.

Governance leaders hold the authority this requires, and they hold it alone. Authorize an independent death review board able to order a second examination and required to publish within 90 days, triggered whenever a county closes a Black resident’s death as accidental or undetermined in a jurisdiction with a documented history of racial terror.

Assign the deadline to one named official. A review lacking a date and a name is a press release. Publish charging and conviction rates for racially motivated violence county by county, because those figures now are located inside aggregate crime reports where prosecutors, chiefs and voters cannot see the pattern training a jury. Pair the board with a standing process open to residents and to the staff running these systems, because a record without a room leaves the second deficit untouched. The ordinance takes authority which coroners, sheriffs and prosecutors hold alone today. Set against what those offices already pay in litigation reserves, consent decrees and the recruiting costs of a workforce residents distrust, it is cheap.

Funders can put the independent examination, the investigators and the counsel within a family’s reach inside 48 hours, so that reaching one stops depending on a stranger with a foundation.

Human services agencies can build a trauma response activating for a whole community rather than one household. Planners can enter documented racial terror sites into the permanent land, title and zoning record instead of onto a plaque. Corporate responsibility officers can require any public safety claim about these counties to rest on data the described community validated. And community advocates can keep their own registry of contested deaths, because a community holding its own evidence stops waiting for permission to be believed.

Because a county coroner, a district attorney, a public health director and a community land trust already hold between them every authority the ordinance needs, a county can draft it with the offices it has.

The structure underneath it, acknowledgment of harm, accountability for the decisions producing it and transformation of the systems carrying it forward, is the spatial reconciliation framework from my doctoral research. It is published, it belongs to the field, and a county attorney can draft from it without asking me for anything. The work is at nikkalemons.com.

Simple request of Nolan Wells family

Mamie Till-Mobley never asked Mississippi for permission. Her son came north in a box locked under the seal of the state, and she took a crowbar to it.

Seventy years on, a family on the Gulf Coast asked for something smaller. Tell us what you found. Mississippi answered recently in the grand jury report, and the answer was undetermined.

A state willing to say so on a deadline, under a name, and then keep working, earns the civic trust it will need the next time it asks anyone to believe anything. A state stopping here teaches its residents the record is negotiable, and everyone who lives there inherits the lesson. The evidence has arrived. The authorization is what remains.

Nikka Lemons is a community scholar practitioner, an urban planning scholar, human rights researcher and governance strategist. She is founder and principal consultant of Azimu Group and founder and CEO of Just Society Technologies, which builds data and research tools enabling state and municipal governance readiness. She is former deputy chief of operations at St. Louis Public Schools and former vulnerable populations unit manager at King County, Washington. She holds a doctorate in urban planning and public policy from the University of Texas at Arlington. www.nikkalemons.com

Gov. Tate Reeves has announced that Mississippi would not enforce dyed diesel prohibitions on highways after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to try to lower the soaring cost of the fuel.   

This would mean diesel, which has shot up to more than $6 a gallon due to the war in Iran and hit Mississippi truckers and farmers hard, could be purchased without the 24-cents-a-gallon federal or state excise usually levied on dyed fuel meant for highway use.

“This will have positive ripple effects on America’s economy and your wallet,” Reeves wrote in a social media post. 

Trump signed the order at a rally in Nebraska on Monday.

Red-dyed diesel is identical to regular diesel but is intended for use in farm equipment and machinery and is not subject to federal and state excise taxes. It’s dyed red to distinguish it from diesel that has been taxed. 

“I’d like to thank President Trump and his administration for working quickly to provide this relief,” Reeves wrote on social media. “Mississippi looks forward to working with USDOT to implement the president’s directives and executive order. We’ll continue to explore legal and fiscally responsible ways to help further drive down fuel prices.”

RANKIN COUNTY — Cherie Reiff said she turned to a friend for a place to stay after losing her housing. While trying to enroll her children in school, she faced questions about how to establish residency without her name on the lease.

Christine Hawthorne described a different situation. She said her grandchildren were already attending school when residency issues arose while she was temporarily staying with her daughter. Their schooling was interrupted during that period, she said.

Reiff said she sought answers about enrollment paperwork. Hawthorne said she had been unfamiliar with the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the federal law providing educational protections for eligible children experiencing homelessness.

Their experiences highlight issues families can face when housing becomes unstable: Can children enroll without a lease? Can they remain at their current school after moving? And what can families do if they disagree with an enrollment decision?

State education officials explained the protections available under McKinney-Vento and how families can seek assistance, navigate missing paperwork and challenge enrollment decisions.

Who qualifies for assistance?

Children do not have to be living on the streets to qualify for McKinney-Vento protections, according to Quentin Ransburg, the Mississippi Department of Education’s interim homeless and emergency impact aid coordinator.

Ransburg said the law covers children who lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence. That can include sharing housing because of housing loss or economic hardship, staying in motels because adequate alternatives are unavailable or living in shelters.

Ransburg said districts typically use housing questionnaires during registration to identify students who may qualify. Information about a family’s living arrangements can prompt school staff to contact the district’s homeless liaison to determine eligibility, he said.

Rico Buckhaulter, Rankin County School District’s homeless liaison, said families do not always recognize their circumstances as homelessness. He said conversations with families can help staff identify students who need assistance.

Who can help families navigate enrollment?

Every school district must designate a homeless liaison, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Federal guidance also emphasizes training school staff to identify and meet the needs of students experiencing homelessness. 

RCSD directs families who believe their children may qualify for assistance to contact Buckhaulter. The district says its McKinney-Vento program assists with enrollment, school stability, transportation when eligible, school supplies and community referrals. 

Ransburg said liaisons can also help families find resources beyond the classroom, including food pantries, housing resources and health services.

“They are plugged into the resources of their community,” Ransburg said.

What if a family lacks a lease or other documents?

Ransburg said eligible students must be enrolled even when families cannot provide documents normally required for registration, such as residency verification, immunization records, birth certificates or previous academic records.

Schools may still need to obtain records, but missing documents should not prevent an eligible student from enrolling immediately, he said.

Buckhaulter said proof of residency is not required for students enrolling under McKinney-Vento.

Ransburg also said the federal act does not require an affidavit. He said some districts use affidavits as part of local procedures, depending on the circumstances, and questions about those procedures should be directed to the district.

Can children remain at their current school after moving?

Federal guidance says districts must presume that remaining in the “school of origin” is in a student’s best interest unless that conflicts with the parent’s or guardian’s request or the request of an unaccompanied youth.

The school of origin generally means the school attended when permanently married or the school in which the child was last enrolled. The definition also includes preschool and designated receiving schools when students complete the final grade at their school of origin, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The department’s transportation guidance says districts must provide or arrange transportation to and from the school of origin at a parent’s or guardian’s request or at the liaison’s request for an unaccompanied youth. 

What if a family disagrees with an enrollment decision?

Ransburg said districts that determine a student is ineligible for McKinney-Vento protections must give the parent, guardian or unaccompanied youth a written explanation and information about challenging the decision. He said districts must also provide written notice when there is a disagreement about school selection.

Federal guidance says the student must be immediately enrolled in the school where enrollment is sought while the dispute, including available appeals, is resolved. 

Ransburg said local appeals may involve a superintendent or designee and the school board. Families who disagree with the local outcome can bring the dispute to MDE, he said.

Under MDE’s published procedure, the state homeless education coordinator gathers information and forwards it to the Office of Federal Programs’ executive director for review. A parent, guardian or unaccompanied youth who disagrees with that decision has 10 business days to appeal in writing to the state superintendent.

The procedure calls for the state superintendent or designee to issue a final administrative decision within 10 business days of receiving the appeal. 

What other support can families seek?

Buckhaulter said RCSD keeps school supplies available and works with churches and community organizations to connect families with food, clothing and other assistance.

He said finding housing resources can be more difficult, particularly when shelters cannot accommodate an entire family.

Ransburg said McKinney-Vento’s purpose extends beyond registration to helping students participate in school and receive the services for which they qualify.

“The act focuses on educational continuity for these students,” Ransburg said.

Both Reiff and Hawthorne said the children in their care are now enrolled in school.

Responding to questions about both families’ experiences, Rankin County School District attorney Fred Harrell also said the children referenced in the inquiry were enrolled and attending school and that the district had complied with applicable requirements. He declined to discuss individual circumstances, citing student and family confidentiality.

The Roy Howard Community Journalism Center has not independently established the enrollment timelines or the circumstances surrounding the families’ reported difficulties.