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Mississippi’s kindergarten vaccination rates declined during the most recent academic year, continuing a downward trend that began after the state started granting religious exemptions for school vaccine requirements.

During the 2025-2026 school year, vaccination rates for required kindergarten immunizations fell nearly half a percentage point to 97.2% coverage, according to data from the Mississippi State Health Department. This rate, which depicts students who received all of the vaccines required for school entry, is down from 97.6% during the previous year. Children entering a Mississippi school for the first time are required to receive vaccines that prevent chickenpox, diphtheria, hepatitis, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, whooping cough and polio.

This coverage rate is high, along with the overall vaccination rate for school-aged children up to 12th grade, at 99%, data shows. But health officials say the statewide averages mask growing pockets of lower immunization levels. 

Eight counties have fallen below a 95% kindergarten vaccine coverage rate, the threshold needed to prevent outbreaks of measles, a highly contagious and life-threatening virus. These counties include Franklin, George, Jackson, Lincoln, Pontotoc, Tate, Tishomingo and Webster. State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney said this is an issue of growing concern for the agency. 

“I do think a recurrence of measles cases is inevitable as we are seeing the vaccination rates declining in certain areas of the states,” Edney told Mississippi Today.

Mississippi has not yet reported a case of measles, though over 2,100 cases of the respiratory illness have been confirmed across the U.S. this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Measles was deemed eradicated nationwide in 2000.

Dr. Nathan Lo, a physician-scientist and assistant professor of infectious diseases at Stanford University, has studied county-level vaccination rates across the U.S. He said analyzing data at the county level is useful because outbreaks typically start when an infection is introduced into a community of people susceptible to a disease. In many cases, the initial introduction occurs within a smaller area, like a school or a grocery store, than an entire county. 

“When you look at the state-level data, and to some extent, even the county data, perhaps you don’t fully appreciate the degree of risk, because there are these pockets of under-vaccination,” he said. 

Edney said the health department, which processes requests for vaccine exemptions, is paying close attention to the counties that have dropped below a 95% vaccination rate and is working with the state Department of Education and school nurses to warn them of the risks and encourage them to prepare isolation protocols. 

For years, Mississippi permitted only medical vaccine exemptions authorized by a doctor for school entry and boasted the highest childhood vaccination rates in the nation. That began to change in 2023 when a federal judge ruled that parents can opt out of vaccinating their children due to religious beliefs. 

In Mississippi, the number of religious vaccine exemptions during the most recent school year increased by more than 60%, according to health department data. During the 2025-2026 school year, over 3,000 Mississippi students were approved for religious exemptions, compared to roughly 1,880 during the previous school year. The number of medical exemptions has remained relatively steady over the past three years, though it has grown over the last decade.

This trend mirrors patterns seen nationwide. The share of kindergarten children up to date on their vaccinations has declined across the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic, as vaccine exemptions have increased. 

When more people are exempt from vaccines, rates of vaccination tend to decline, Lo said. And when vaccination rates drop, communities are more likely to experience disease outbreaks. 

In 2025, Mississippi experienced a steep rise in whooping cough cases — reaching 141 total cases — and officials reported the first death related to the illness in 13 years. Confirmed infections have declined this year, with 32 cases reported in Mississippi as of June 20, according to CDC data. 

Edney said he worries about the resurgence of other vaccine preventable illnesses that have largely been eradicated in the U.S., like tetanus, polio and diphtheria, as more parents choose not to vaccinate their children against these potentially fatal illnesses.

“We’ve got to protect our children from these diseases that will definitely kill them,” he said.  

Lo said Mississippi’s historically high vaccination rates are likely to help protect the state from large, prolonged disease outbreaks. However, he warned that this security could weaken over time if more parents choose not to vaccinate their children.

“Over time, if vaccine coverage is low and stays low for many years, you have a build up of susceptible children such that you’ll start to have outbreaks,” Lo said. 

In Mississippi, kindergarten vaccination rates are lowest among private schools. According to health department data, 95.2% of kindergarten students at private schools are vaccinated, compared with 97.2% of public school children and 98.1% of children attending church schools. 

The highest coverage rates are in the Delta region, where 98.9% of kindergarten students and 99.7% of all K-12 students are vaccinated. 

Dr. Patricia Tibbs is a pediatrician in Ellisville and has worked with families for over three decades. She also serves as the president of the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

Increasingly over the past three years, Tibbs said parents have expressed skepticism about vaccinating their children during appointments. During those conversations, Tibbs said she emphasizes that choosing not to vaccinate can put not only their own children at risk but also others in the community, including infants too young to be vaccinated and people who can not be vaccinated for medical reasons. These people generally have a diagnosed condition that heightens the risks of vaccines, like people who have a weakened immune system because they are receiving chemotherapy or who have a serious allergy to a vaccine component. 

“I cannot stress enough that the community of people who are immunizing their children is protecting all of us, all of our children right now,” she said. 

Edney said about a third of children with approved religious exemptions ultimately choose to become partially or fully vaccinated, oftentimes after parents discuss their options with pediatricians. He said the health department encourages providers to have nonjudgemental discussions with parents about the benefits of vaccines.  

“We’re believers that parents know their children best, and asking questions is what good parents do,” Edney said. “And then, our job is to thoughtfully answer these questions based on the evidence, and then ask them to consult their individual physicians and providers to help make the right decision.”

This article was produced by the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center in collaboration with The New York Times. Learn more about our work here.

After Mississippi’s child protection system was thrown into chaos by a law change that took effect Wednesday, the state Supreme Court issued an order Thursday that officials said will allow youth court business to proceed as usual. At least for now.

The change in law prohibits state agencies from disclosing records involving children without exceptions.

The Supreme Court order provides a temporary fix by defining the exceptions to confidentiality in the Uniform Rules of Youth Court Practice, which the state court enacted. The order also suspends penalties for violating confidentiality. The court order remains in effect until July 24. 

State officials have said the uncertainty threatened to thwart the functions of several government entities, such as the child protection agency and the courts that oversee the cases of abused or neglected youth. 

Sgt. Jonathan Blakeney, who works in Pascagoula Police Department’s criminal investigations division, had told Mississippi Today that he learned Wednesday morning that the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services would no longer refer reports about child abuse or neglect to his department.

However, the agency told Mississippi Today Thursday that this was not accurate and that workers have been instructed to continue cooperating with law enforcement. 

“Our mission remains unchanged: to protect children, support families, and encourage lasting family connections,” CPS said in a statement late Thursday. “We remain committed to carrying out that mission through collaboration, transparency, and a shared commitment to the safety of Mississippi’s children.”

Blakeney estimated his office typically receives around five such reports a week, which it investigates to determine whether charges are warranted.

“I cannot tell you how many hours a week I spend on the phone exchanging valuable information with CPS workers for the sole purpose of keeping children safe, and now that ability to work together has been taken away,” Blakeney said Wednesday.

At issue is a state law that places blanket confidentiality on youth courts across the state. A separate provision that provides exceptions to that secrecy – which allow judicial officers, the child protection agency, providers and lawyers to communicate information – was removed from state law Wednesday. Without the exceptions, the laws left in place make it a misdemeanor to share any records involving children with anybody.  

This change was due to a repealer that lawmakers added to the law two years ago as it contemplated broad reforms to the state’s youth court structure. When a repealer is included in a state law, the law goes away on a specified date unless the Legislature passes a bill to reenact it. The Legislature’s intent in including the repealer was to force lawmakers to  introduce a new court structure or maintain the status quo. 

Blakeney, the police investigator in Pascagoula, said there was nothing broken about the specific law they killed. “It seems like an uninformed gamble,” he said, describing the Legislature’s strategy. 

Instead of handling the repealer during the 2026 session, lawmakers went home. While the Senate was taking up the youth court bill on the floor in the last days of the session, senators learned the House had adjourned before passing the bill, causing its demise and thrusting the youth court world into tumult.

To circumvent the problem, several youth court judges issued standing orders allowing for the limited disclosure of these records –  such as investigative reports, court filings, medical and educational records – to judicial officers, lawyers, law enforcement and service providers.

READ MORE: State court office will follow judge orders on youth court access, while legal conundrum around secrecy remains

On Tuesday, CPS filed an emergency motion with the Mississippi Supreme Court to prevent these orders from taking effect. 

No one, including CPS, publicly supported the law change that occurred Wednesday. It is regarded as a legislative blunder. The agency specifically asked Gov. Tate Reeves to call a special legislative session to rectify it. 

But still, CPS has moved to block the judicial workaround, arguing it is not the proper fix. CPS claims the patchwork of orders by local judges are unlawful and would force state employees to break the law. 

This is especially concerning, the agency contends, considering the hardship its workers already endure under contradictory legal constraints and a climate in which “youth court judges exert extreme control and direction of agency employees.”

“Historically, Mississippi youth courts have a reputation for being punitive and abusive to MDCPS employees who are subjected to conflicting verbal and written orders,” the motion states. 

It warned against possible sanctions, retribution and contempt proceedings against child protection workers.

The Office of the State Public Defender is also sounding the alarm about the effect of blanket confidentiality on the due process rights of parents and children who find themselves in youth court and face barriers accessing their own court records. The defense lawyers have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Administrative Office of the Courts, the custodian of the statewide youth court case management system.

Blakeney’s department has urged hospitals and schools in his area to call the police about crimes against children, in addition to reporting to CPS.

Update, 7/2/2026: This article has been updated to show that the Mississippi Supreme Court has issued an order that affects the child protection system and to show that the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services said its position on making reports to law enforcement had not changed in light of the July 1 law change.

Mukta Joshi is an investigative reporter at Mississippi Today. She is spending a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow examining immigration and criminal justice issues. She can be reached at mukta.joshi@nytimes.com. Joseph Cranney is a reporter with the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center in collaboration with The New York Times. Learn more about the center’s work here.

SENATOBIA — The 1-year-old boy shot by police outside a Mississippi Walmart was killed by a bullet that entered through the vehicle’s front passenger door window – not the windshield, a lawyer for the victim’s family said at a news conference Wednesday.

Ben Crump, the high-profile civil rights lawyer, said those were the conclusions of Dr. Robert Mitchell, a forensic pathologist who examined Kohen Wiley’s wounds on behalf of the family. Kohen was with his mother and her friend when he was shot, during a confrontation over alleged shoplifting by one of the women.

Senatobia Police officers had responded to a shoplifting call, “which led to officers discharging their firearms,” the department said in a brief statement. The Tate County Sheriff’s Office, which was also on the scene, said that an unnamed officer fired at an “oncoming vehicle.”

Video of the June 14 shooting has not been released, but Crump shared a photo showing the front passenger door window blown out from the sedan. Crump said that was evidence that police fired even though officers were not in the path of the vehicle.

Phone footage captured by a witness, Desirae Smith, shows three law enforcement officers present as the car drives away, with the passenger door window already shattered.

“You can’t get that shot from the front. Why would you shoot into a vehicle from the side when you’re clearly not in harm’s way?” Crump said Wednesday, flanked by Kohen’s grandparents and a crowd of supporters who chanted, “Baby Kohen’s life mattered!” The group gathered at the Senatobia Church of Christ, a mile away from the Walmart on U.S. Highway 51.

Kohen, who was in his mother’s arms in the passenger seat of the car, was struck at least once in his right torso and had an exit wound along his left side, Crump said during the news conference, pointing at a photograph of the autopsy. The pattern of abrasions wasn’t consistent with a shot from point blank range, meaning the shots were likely fired from at least an intermediate distance, he said.

The news conference followed two weeks of unrest in the small town about 40 miles south of Memphis. Protestors have demanded police release footage of the incident from officers’ body cameras, with one activist Wednesday calling the shooting “our generation’s Emmett Till moment.” 

Senatobia police also haven’t shown that footage to Kohen’s family, claiming the investigation would take as long as nine months, Crump said Wednesday. 

Sean Tindell, commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, addressed the public three days after the shooting and indicated evidence would be presented to the public when the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, a division of his department, concludes its probe.

The Senatobia Police Department and the Tate County Sheriff’s Office have not responded to requests by Mississippi Today for video footage, including any captured by body-worn police cameras. Neither has the state Department of Public Safety.

WMC-TV Action News 5 first reported that Sgt. Hunter Foster was one of the Senatobia officers present during the shooting, citing records obtained through a public records request. It’s unclear if he was the officer who fired his weapon.

A statement posted on Facebook by the Tate County Sheriff’s Office said its deputies were at the Walmart on an unrelated call when their assistance was requested, though it does not specify who made the request. “The suspects fled the parking lot in their vehicle after an officer fired at the oncoming vehicle,” the statement says. 

Kohen’s mother said she was holding him in the front seat next to her adult friend, who someone had accused of stealing diapers from the Walmart. The friend was also shot, but her name has not been released by Kohen’s family or law enforcement officials.

“We’re not talking about no strong arm robbery, we ain’t talking about nobody being shot, we ain’t talking about no hostage situation,” Crump said. “We’re talking about a box of diapers. This baby is dead, and it was an alleged shoplifting of a box of diapers.”

Vellesiya Wiley, the boy’s 19-year-old mother, said she had lifted her son up to show officers a baby was in the car. By the time she sat him down, officers had fired three or four shots, one of which hit the baby in his rib cage, Wiley said in a video Crump posted to his X account.

Senatobia’s Board of Aldermen placed an unnamed officer on administrative leave after the shooting, Mississippi Today previously reported. A representative of the Senatobia Police Department wouldn’t address Foster’s status with the department Wednesday, saying the matter was under investigation. The public safety department also declined to provide any disciplinary records for Foster that might exist, saying they were exempt from public record disclosure requirements. 

Neither the police nor the sheriff’s office have not announced any charges against Wiley.

Joseph Cranney contributed to this report from New Orleans.

Closing arguments in a decade-long case between the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority and the state of Mississippi wrapped Wednesday. 

The case started in 2016 over a new law passed by the Legislature and signed by then-Gov. Phil Bryant to abolish the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority and replace it with a regional authority. 

The parties squared off for the last week-and-a-half in a federal bench trial, meaning no jury, before U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves. Reeves said that he will accept post trial findings from both sides over the next 60 days before making a ruling.

The city of Jackson and the municipal authority that currently oversees the airport argued that the legislation was racially discriminatory and unfairly targeted the state’s largest city, which is majority Black, in violation of the U.S. and state constitutions.

LaToya Merritt, an attorney representing the Jackson airport authority, said the bill was an “unconstitutional effort” to take control of the airport.

The state says that the law was not racially motivated and that the new board would bring more economic development to the airport and help it contend with new business challenges.  

Senate Bill 2162, authored by Sen. Josh Harkins, a Republican from Flowood, would dissolve the current five-person board of commissioners appointed by the city and create a nine-person board largely appointed by state and county entities. 

The Mississippi National Guard, the Mississippi Development Authority, the lieutenant governor, Madison County and Rankin County would each appoint one member while the city of Jackson and the governor would each appoint two. The governor and lieutenant governor’s appointees would have to be from Jackson. 

Jackson City Attorney Drew Martin argued that the law is part of a larger pattern of the state taking away power and property from the majority-Black city. He pointed to testimony from Jackson Mayor John Horhn, Rep. Robert Johnson and Byron Orey, a political science professor at Jackson State University, who all said the legislation was racially motivated. 

Martin added that taking power of appointment away from the city, which is 80% Black, would effectively dilute the voice and vote of Jacksonians.

Assistant Attorney General Justin Matheny said the law was passed based on “legitimate, non-racial” reasons and went through the proper legislative process. He pointed to legislative debates at the time where lawmakers said rising fares and the need to grow economic development around the airport necessitated the board change. 

As to why the law does not include other airports, such as in Gulfport-Biloxi or the Golden Triangle, Matheny argued that the Jackson airport, which has the most commercial passengers, is not like other airports due to its size and economic and military importance.

The airport land is owned by Jackson but is located in Rankin County. Last year Jackson reached an agreement with two Rankin County cities over land surrounding the airport. Under the agreement, Flowood and Pearl can annex unincorporated Jackson land with the goal of attracting economic development to the area. 

Judge Reeves thanked both sides for a “spirited debate.” He closed by saying that the case has been back and forth on appeals and he was “pretty sure that whatever decision this court makes will be reviewed.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced on social media the approval of $11 million for recovery from tornadoes and severe weather that hit south Mississippi on May 6 and 7. The news came in response to Gov. Tate Reeves’ request on May 19 for a federal disaster declaration.

The storms destroyed 88 homes, damaged 425 others, and injured 26 people in Franklin, Lamar, Lawrence, Lincoln and Wilkinson counties. The National Weather Service reported seven tornadoes hit the state on May 6. One, an EF3, stretched over a mile wide at one point and remained on the ground for nearly 70 miles.

Just halfway through 2026, the year has already delivered several bouts of destructive weather to Mississippi. Tuesday’s announcement marks the second major disaster declaration the state has received this year after Winter Storm Fern in January.

Then, less than two weeks ago, flooding and severe weather from Tropical Storm Arthur damaged 565 homes, Reeves announced in an update Monday. Totals from that storm now include 150 destroyed homes and 152 with major damage.

Major disaster declarations are reserved for large events where damages exceed a state’s response capacity. Neither the Federal Emergency Management Agency nor the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency had announced the declaration as of Wednesday afternoon. MEMA told Mississippi Today it was still waiting for details on what kind of assistance would be available to affected areas. Reeves requested funding through both the Public and Individual Assistance programs.

Shortly after the governor’s request, all six members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation echoed the call to support struggling local governments dealing with the tornadoes’ aftermath.

As the World Cup moves to the Knockout Rounds, we take a look at the most exciting games so far and pontificate on the USA’s chances. Plus, Scottie Scheffler finishes second (again) and Rick picks his favorite Mississippi courses.

Stream all episodes here.

As the first day of school inches closer, Mississippi education officials are making it easier for K-12 teachers to access the money the state gives teachers to set up their classrooms.

The Education Enhancement Fund, or EEF, procurement card program, which was established in 2012, gives every teacher $748 — around $25 million in total — to buy supplies for their classrooms. 

However, a report released last year by State Auditor Shad White’s office concluded that $17.8 million of that money is locked when “teachers need it most” because the cards weren’t  activated for districts until Aug. 1, as required by state law. That meant teachers, in some cases, had to dip into their own pockets to purchase the supplies or start the year without things they needed. 

This year, the education agency is making the money available to districts on July 15 and shifting to a digital wallet platform instead of dispersing physical cards for payments. 

The cards had limitations, including delays in replacement and dispute resolution and placed a significant administrative load on state Education Department and district staff, State Superintendent Lance Evans said in a letter about the program that he sent White in June. 

The new platform, ClassWallet, is built specifically for classroom supply funds and should make it easier for teachers to capture receipts, resolve any issues and directly pay vendors, he said.

The Education Department’s transition to a digital wallet platform for teachers to access EEF classroom supply funds is a response to district input, said Jean Cook, a spokesperson for the education department. “The agency convened a panel of school district business managers and EEF card administrators from across the state, and their input informed the selection of the new digital wallet platform.”

Cook said the agency typically releases funds to districts in July, with the exception of the past two years because of vendor changes. But until 2022, the cards weren’t activated for districts until Sept. 1. 

Legislation passed that year moved the activation date up to Aug. 1 to help teachers access the money earlier. 

However, Hannah Bagwell, a fifth grade math and science teacher at Florence Elementary in Rankin County, said in her 13 years of teaching, she has typically gotten her procurement card after school has started. 

That meant adding pens, pencils and crayons to her shopping cart during summer grocery store trips and reusing classroom decorations each year. She estimates she spent a couple of hundred dollars a year to make her classroom feel welcoming for her new students. 

After she got her EEF card in past years, Bagwell would buy dry erase markers and copy paper. But she still had to spend her own money on several items for her classroom.

Keyana Hawthorne, an 11th grade English teacher at Murrah High in Jackson, said she’s spent up to $1,000 of her own money preparing her classroom for students because of how late the EEF card has been activated in years past. 

She said she’s grateful state officials are recognizing and trying to fix the gap, but she’s skeptical about increasing limitations on the money and the program’s rollout. 

Making the money available earlier is good in theory, but teachers may not have immediate access to it, Hawthorne said. “Just because the funds open on July 15 doesn’t guarantee my district is going to give me the funds then.”

Education agency officials told district business managers that the digital accounts must be activated between July 15 and Aug. 1, and that districts should ensure teachers attend a virtual training session this month on how to use the program. 

“I’m praying it works and that every district does what they’re supposed to do,” Hawthorne said.

Scott Berry, the winningest baseball coach in Southern Miss baseball history, has been selected for induction into the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.

Ceremonies will be held at the annual ABCA Convention on Jan. 8 in Chicago.

Berry spent 23 years at Southern Miss, including the last 14 seasons as head coach. He produced 528 victories, nine NCAA Tournament appearances, two NCAA Super Regional berths and ended his career leading USM to seven straight 40-win seasons.

That streak, now extended to 10 straight seasons under Christian Ostrander, is the nation’s longest.

Berry won four conference Coach of the Year honors and coached four Boo Ferriss Trophy winners. Before joining Corky Palmer’s Southern Miss staff, Berry was the Meridian Community College head coach for four seasons. Meridian won 185 games, while losing only 58 and twice advanced to the Junior College World Series. 

Among the Mississippi coaches named to the ABCA Hall of Fame are Boo Ferriss, Dudy Noble, Rob Polk, Stanley Robrinson, Bob Braddy, Mike Kinnison, Tom Swayze, Jerry Boatner and Hill Denson.

OXFORD – After a wave of immigration enforcement arrests in and around Oxford in the first two weeks of June, immigrant communities faced a void of information from authorities as they confronted the emergencies and disruptions to lives, families and businesses caused by the detentions.

The lack of transparency from authorities is “the first symptom of a huge problem,” said Mauricio Calvo, president of Latino Memphis, an organization that supports immigrant families with information and resources. Often when detentions occur, he said, “we don’t know how many, we don’t know who, we don’t know where they are – it could be a bunch of different detention centers.”

Witnesses in Oxford filmed and photographed ICE agents in unmarked SUVs arresting predominantly Latino commuters at intersections and at traffic stops. A Memphis, Tennessee-based grassroots network, Vecindarios901, found that at least 24 people were detained. Many were held briefly at Madison County Detention Center in central Mississippi, then quickly transferred to larger Immigration and Custom Enforcement detention facilities in Louisiana and Alabama, including a privately run prison in Jena, Louisiana, with a documented history of torture and abuse. 

For many people trying to locate friends and family who were detained, Vecindarios901 was a critical line of information. The network primarily responds to arrests in and around Memphis, where immigrant communities have been main targets of the Memphis Safe Task Force, a joint operation by federal agencies, including ICE and the National Guard, in collaboration with local authorities. (President Donald Trump’s September 2025 memorandum established the force to “end street and violent crime,” but the federal agents have been accused of repeated violence and harassment.)  

More than an hour’s drive southeast of Memphis, Oxford has not been a regular target of federal immigration authorities, but Vecindarios901 also monitors the area due to its proximity to its home base. Dispatchers said the arrests were the largest scale enforcement operation they have recorded near Oxford since September. 

Bailey Martin Holloway, spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, wrote that since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – which includes ICE – was the lead agency in the Oxford operation, “any information would need to be released by them.”

ICE, the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department and the Madison County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to questions about the number of people detained or where they were taken. Oxford Police Department spokesperson Breck Jones said city police were not involved in the operations and received no information about the arrests. Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Nena Garza, who uses the alias that translates to “Dear Heron” to avoid retribution from authorities for her work, is one of Vecindarios901’s trained searchers. They have become experts at using a variety of online resources to help families in the region locate relatives in detention. The tools for finding detainees exist, Nena Garza said, but “not many people know how to find them or navigate them.” 

She and other searchers glean information by comparing information from county detention dockets, a privately run platform designed for families to transfer money to prisoners, ICE’s detainee locator, and updates from local law enforcement on the Mobile Patrol App.

However, the sheer number of immigration detentions in the region make it impossible for the searchers to address every case. “There are too many,” Nena Garza said. “If I leave the office and I have my laptop or my iPad, I’m always looking for people, checking where they might be.”

At a roadside restaurant in the outskirts of Oxford, the owner’s husband said he has been juggling his full-time construction job with managing the restaurant since his wife, a Honduran citizen, was detained in Memphis in early June. Then, ICE came to Oxford and arrested the son of one of the restaurant’s employees. 

“They’ve taken so many of my friends and acquaintances, with the raids and the traffic stops that they put up,” said the owner’s husband, who asked not to be identified to avoid being targeted by immigration authorities. “We’re left mourning because many of the people we knew aren’t here anymore.”

He said his wife has lived in the U.S. for 16 years, raised a family here, runs two businesses and was close to getting her green card. Fulfilling her responsibilities has been a challenge for him and the restaurant’s employees, especially as they worry about what loved ones are facing in detention centers. He said authorities have not given his wife her prescribed medication, and she keeps losing weight.

“I’m afraid they’re going to let her die,” he said. “It destroys my heart.” 

Nena Garza said that, beyond disappearances, the detentions create a host of emergencies that support networks scramble to address – including finding care for children left without guardians, helping families whose principal earner has been detained pay rent and bills, and organizing rides to school or appointments when families are left without cars or afraid to leave their homes. Recovering vehicles that are abandoned then towed after their drivers are detained can cost relatives hundreds to thousands of dollars. But the principal harm, she says, is the emotional trauma.

“The community is damaged and in pain because of this,” she said. “The government used force and its authority to terrorize the community.”

Organizations supporting immigrant communities are bracing for a possible increase in immigration enforcement operations after Wednesday, when state legislation goes into effect requiring all Mississippi counties to sign 287(g) cooperation agreements with ICE. As of June, 24 of Mississippi’s 82 counties have signed such agreements, as well as several municipalities, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Public Safety. 

According to publicly available ICE data, around 300 immigration arrests occurred monthly in Mississippi in late 2025 and early 2026, an increase from roughly 200 per month throughout most of 2025. Paula Merchant, who directs a Jackson-based nonprofit that supports immigrant families, said in Mississippi an increase in detentions of commuters on highways, city streets and at gas stations was visible starting in November. Mississippi Today reported on this surge in arrests, which occurred around the same time DHS launched an immigration enforcement operation targeting southern Louisiana and Mississippi. 

According to ICE’s Strategic Plan, detentions target “individuals who present a threat to national security, public safety or the integrity of the U.S. immigration system.” However, the vast majority of people arrested by ICE have no criminal convictions, according to the American Immigration Council. Furthermore, the unprecedented speed of policy changes and long-standing interpretations of immigration law under the second Trump administration – including re-detention policies and terminations of Temporary Protected Status – mean that many people currently being detained were complying with immigration procedures until “the rules changed under them anyway,” according to Calvo. 

Nena Garza lived through mass-immigration raids at Arkansas chicken plants and Memphis’ service industry in the late 1990s, but she said the targeting of immigrants under the second Trump administration is the “most terrible” she has experienced.

“The community is damaged and in pain because of this situation. We’re talking about the government using force and its authority to terrorize the community,” she said. “You go to bed with your heart crushed by everything you’ve seen during the day.” 

But she also said that in 30 years working to support immigrant communities, she has never seen so many people mobilize to respond to the detentions, their ramifications and other anti-immigrant policies. “As a community, we have to be strong, we have to protect ourselves,” she said.

Georgie Pease joined Mississippi Today for a 10-week fellowship through the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She reported from Oxford and Memphis for this story.

The state agency that oversees court operations in Mississippi has agreed to continue providing attorneys with case file access while an impending change in state law threatens youth court functions more broadly.

The Office of the State Public Defender requested a temporary restraining order last week to curb what it predicted would be catastrophic results from the sunsetting of a crucial law dealing with access to youth court information. The law is set to repeal Wednesday.  

But there was a disagreement about whether the Administrative Office of the Courts, the agency that the public defenders sued, had the power to prevent the lapse in access.

READ MORE: Mississippi youth court law puts families’ rights at risk, public defender lawsuit says

At issue is a state statute that places blanket confidentiality on youth courts across the state. The law that provides exceptions to that secrecy – which allow judicial officers, the child protection agency, providers and lawyers to communicate information – is set to repeal Wednesday. Without the exceptions, the laws left in place make it a misdemeanor to share any records involving children with any party. 

Had a youth court reform bill introduced and negotiated during the past legislative session passed, this legal conundrum could have been avoided. But on a passage deadline day, the House adjourned before taking up the bill.

Defense lawyers contend that the law change will threaten their ability to access records that allow them to defend their clients, such as parents who have had their children removed by Child Protection Services. In particular, they were concerned the state court administrative agency might interpret the law change to mean that it could no longer provide credentials to lawyers to log in to the youth court database and review case files. 

The Administrative Office of the Courts confirmed Friday that it would continue to follow court orders providing access following the repealer. But the office argued in court that it was unclear if it would still be receiving those orders from judges considering the law change.

State officials are still hopeful that Gov. Tate Reeves will call a special legislative session, formally requested by the public defender’s office and the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, to rectify the problem.

The public defender’s office alleged in a federal civil rights complaint that Mississippi’s youth court law already results in unconstitutional outcomes. The impending law change, it claims, would only worsen the violations of due process rights that parents and children have been experiencing.

“The draconian policies and practices relating to confidentiality result in the unnecessary separation of families and the unnecessary detention of children,” states the lawsuit filed last week.

Youth courts in Mississippi’s 82 counties are required to house court filings in a statewide electronic database controlled by the Administrative Office of the Courts. There are various ways court officers, lawyers and agency workers gain permission to access the system. The state office is often responsible for providing the login credentials.

In many instances, and based on its interpretation of state law, the office will only provide the credentials under a youth court judge’s order.

During a five-hour hearing Friday, counsel for the public defender’s office and the Administrative Office of the Courts went back and forth, much of the time focused on the convoluted electronic case management and record retrieval process within youth courts. This hearing only pertained to the immediate issue of the repealer.

Elizabeth Rossi, a lawyer with the D.C.-based legal nonprofit Civil Rights Corps, argued that the Administrative Office of the Courts is the entity that “holds the key” for all youth court records. Civil Rights Corps, along with a similar organization called Public Justice, are representing the public defender’s office in its complaint.

Anna Morris, director of civil litigation for the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office representing the Administrative Office of the Courts, argued instead that the agency is akin to a custodian of a filing cabinet and does not have the authority to grant access to its contents.

With the exceptions to confidentiality set to lapse Wednesday, Morris said the office cannot guarantee that judges will continue ordering credentials to attorneys or even that courts will keep entering filings into the electronic database.

But Morris said the state office will continue to follow judges’ orders to provide access. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate and the parties signed an agreed order Monday confirming this position and continuing the case until July 15.

The public defenders’ lawsuit ultimately goes a step further, arguing that access issues could be prevented more broadly if a court orders the Administrative Office of the Courts to provide youth court records access to all attorneys, regardless of a court order.