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As immigrants in southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi braced for this month’s U.S. Homeland Security operation, Cristiane Rosales-Fajardo received a panicked phone call from a friend.

The friend’s Guatemalan tenant, who didn’t know she was pregnant, had just delivered a premature baby in the New Orleans house. The parents lacked legal residency, and the mother refused to go to a hospital for fear of being detained by federal immigration officers.

“There’s blood everywhere, and the baby’s dead,” Rosales-Fajardo recalled her friend saying. Rosales-Fajardo put on her sandals, grabbed surgical gloves, and rushed to the house.

Rosales-Fajardo, herself an immigrant from Brazil, is a grassroots organizer and advocate in the New Orleans East community, where many immigrants live. She has no formal medical training, but she has experience with delivering babies.

She scanned the room when she arrived. A 3-year-old child stood to one side while the mother sat on the edge of the bed. The father held their swaddled newborn son, who wasn’t breathing and was wrapped in blood-soaked towels.

“The baby was completely gray,” Rosales-Fajardo later said.

Rosales-Fajardo wiped fluid away from his small mouth and rubbed his back before performing tiny chest compressions and breathing air into his lungs.

She told the parents she had to call 911 to get the mother and newborn to a hospital for care. The baby was out, but the delivery wasn’t over.

“I assured her. I promised her that she was going to be safe,” Rosales-Fajardo said.

Fear hung over the room. Still, she made the call and continued performing CPR. Finally, the newborn revived and squirmed in Rosales-Fajardo’s arms. When the ambulance arrived, the mother tried to keep her husband from riding with her, terrified they would both be arrested.

He went, anyway.

“These are hard-working people,” Rosales-Fajardo said. “All they do is work to provide for their family. But they were almost at risk of losing their child rather than call 911.”

Putting Safety Over Health

Nearly two weeks into the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Catahoula Crunch, which launched Dec. 3, health professionals and community advocates in Louisiana and Mississippi report that a significantly higher-than-usual number of immigrant patients have skipped health care appointments and experienced heightened stress levels.

According to a press release, DHS said it had arrested more than 250 people as of Dec. 11. Though federal officials say they’re targeting criminals, The Associated Press reported that most of the 38 people arrested in the first two days of the New Orleans operation had no criminal record.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, immigrant families nationwide have become more likely to skip or delay health care, due in part to concerns about their legal status, according to a recent survey by KFF and The New York Times.

The survey found that nearly 8 in 10 immigrants likely to be living in the U.S. without legal permission say they’ve experienced negative health impacts this year, from increased anxiety to sleeping problems to worsened health conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes. The federal immigration raids in California, Illinois, North Carolina, and now Louisiana and Mississippi add to the health care barriers that these families already face, including access to services, language barriers, lack of insurance, and high costs. That hesitancy to receive even emergency care appears justified amid the ongoing raids.

Hospitals and health facilities generally must allow federal agents in areas where the public is allowed, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. In California this year, federal agents have staked out hospital lobbies, shown up at community clinics, and guarded detainees in hospital rooms. Even driving to and from appointments poses a risk, as traffic stops are a popular place for immigration agents to make arrests.

University Medical Center nurse Terry Mogilles said that immigrants typically make up at least half the patients in her orthopedic trauma clinic in New Orleans, many of them with construction-related, bone crushing injuries that require surgery. But now, Mogilles said, many of those patients aren’t coming in for follow-up appointments, despite the risk of infection.

“When we call, we can’t get through,” Mogilles said. “It is so upsetting because we have no idea what’s happening to them post-op.”

A Chill Spreads in the South

Federal officials said the Catahoula Crunch operation extends to southern Mississippi, though the bulk of the initial arrests have occurred in the Greater New Orleans area. Immigrant families throughout Mississippi are hunkering down in anticipation.

Michael Oropeza, the executive director of El Pueblo, a nonprofit serving low-income immigrant communities in Biloxi and Forest, said the organization has witnessed families delay care, cancel children’s checkups, and go without refilling medication.

“It’s not because they don’t value their health; it’s because they don’t feel safe,” Oropeza said. “When hospitals and clinics are no longer that safe place, people withdraw trust that took years to build up. It can disappear overnight.”

Maria, a Biloxi resident from Honduras, said, in Spanish, she and her two children have missed routine doctors’ appointments because they are “terrified” to leave the house amid an increased presence of federal immigration officers. Her husband, who is authorized to work in the U.S., was detained for two months this year.

Her children are U.S. citizens. They previously qualified for Medicaid, but Maria opted to disenroll them three years ago out of concern that using public benefits would jeopardize her family’s residency applications, she said. The family now pays for their children’s care out-of-pocket.

When it feels safe to attend doctors’ appointments again, Maria said, her priority will be seeking mental health care to address the stress her family has endured.

“I definitely need to see a doctor to get checked out, because I don’t feel well,” she said, describing her anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

In Louisiana, Marcela Hernandez of Familias Unidas en Acción, a nonprofit that provides direct aid to immigrants, said many of the families she works with live paycheck to paycheck. Sheltering at home and missing work only adds to the stress. Hernandez said she received 800 calls for food in two days from families afraid to leave home.

The federal operation in Louisiana and Mississippi could last more than two months, according to the AP. The longer it goes on, Hernandez said, the more she worries evictions will come next as people can’t pay rent, further traumatizing a community whose members often had to make difficult and dangerous journeys to flee hardships in their countries of origin to reach the U.S.

“You don’t leave your country knowing that you’re gonna get raped on the way just simply because you wanna come and meet Mickey Mouse,” she said.

Rosales-Fajardo, who runs a nonprofit called El Pueblo NOLA, said families tell her how children have started urinating on themselves due to stress and fear. Nationally, immigrants who are likely to lack legal status report that some of their children have had problems sleeping and that they’ve seen changes in school performance or behavior, according to the KFF and New York Times survey.

Community groups said they hope people step up locally to deliver food and hygiene products to immigrant homes, and that health care professionals provide more at-home or telehealth visits.

Like at other hospitals, UMC’s waiting rooms are considered public spaces, Mogilles noted. But the nurses union is calling for the hospital to create safe spaces for patients that federal agents can’t access and clearer policies to protect health care workers who shield patients. Post-op appointments can’t be done virtually, so patients need to feel safe enough to come in, Mogilles said.

Prenatal and postnatal care is also challenging to provide virtually, leaving the health of new and expecting mothers vulnerable, said Latona Giwa, the executive director of Repro TLC, a national sexual and reproductive health training nonprofit.

Since the Chicago immigration sweeps began in September, Giwa said, the clinics and health providers her organization works with have reported that 30% of patients had missed appointments. She said pharmacies saw a 40% drop in medication pickups.

“What we know about management of chronic conditions, especially in pregnancy, but in general, is that even missing one appointment can impact the trajectory of that condition and worsen a patient’s outcomes,” Giwa said.

In Louisiana, which already has poor maternal health outcomes, the fear of arrest could exacerbate the crisis worsened by the overturning of Roe v. Wade and threaten lives. She’s especially concerned about families with preterm babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.

“Imagine your child is in the hospital, and so vulnerable, and you are terrified to go visit and care for your newborn infant because you’re worried about being deported,” Giwa said, noting that a newborn’s health partly relies on parental visits.

That’s the position the Guatemalan family in New Orleans is navigating.

On a recent day in December, Rosales-Fajardo acted as the family’s translator and advocate on their first visit to see their son in the NICU at a hospital on Lake Pontchartrain’s Northshore. Hospital staffers told the parents they would need to make the long and risky trip to the hospital repeatedly for at least a month to provide skin-to-skin contact and breast milk.

Rosales-Fajardo drove the parents, who were afraid to travel alone out of fear of being pulled over and arrested on a bridge. She said she’ll keep driving them as long as she needs to.

“Whenever they see a Hispanic driving or anything like that, that’s suspicious to them,” she said of federal agents.

But the baby is safe and healthy. And the parents have named Rosales-Fajardo his godmother.

Gwen Dilworth of Mississippi Today and Christiana Botic of Verite News contributed to this report.

HATTIESBURG – Brand new Southern Miss head football coach Blake Anderson, introduced to a ballroom-full of enthused Golden Eagle fans here Monday afternoon, faces extremely difficult tasks, both immediate and long-term.

The immediate: His Eagles, who lost three of their final four regular season games, have little more than a week to prepare a date with the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in the Dec. 23 New Orleans Bowl. 

Long-term: As it stands now, Anderson must replace 32 seniors – including 18 of 22 starters – before the 2026 season in which USM faces Auburn and Tulane in September road games. 

The good news at Southern Miss: Anderson, a 56-year-old Texan, has been there and done that before. What’s more, he has done it twice. Athletic director Jeremy McClain was absolutely correct when he called Anderson “the most accomplished head football coach we’ve ever hired at Southern Miss.”

And, yes, that includes Charles Huff, who recently departed Hattiesburg for Memphis. Huff had won one NCAA Division I conference championship before taking the job here. Anderson has won three.

“I am the right guy for this job,” Anderson said. “I am supposed to be here, We will not waste this opportunity.”

For the most successful coaches in Southern Miss history – Thad “Pie” Vann, Bobby Collins and Jeff Bower – the job here was their first crack at being a head coach. Anderson has 10 seasons as a Division I head coach under his belt – seven at Arkansas State and three at Utah State. Nine of those 10 seasons ended with bowl games. Three ended with conference championships.

The first goal for any Southern Miss coach is to win the Sun Belt Conference championship. Anderson, at Arkansas State, already has won two, plus another division championship. He also won the Mountain West Conference championship at Utah State. 

Dive deeper his two previous head coaching jobs and you find in each case Anderson inherited less than ideal situations. Arkansas State had five coaches in the previous five seasons before Anderson took over. In his second year there, Anderson won nine games and the Sun Belt title.

At Utah State, Anderson produced one of the most dramatic turn-arounds in college football history. He inherited a team that had won one game the previous season. Anderson’s first Utah State team won 11 games, including a 24-23 win over Oregon State in the LA Bowl.

Anderson was no stranger to Southern Miss when he joined Huff’s staff as offensive coordinator before this past season. He had served four seasons (2008-2011) as first the quarterbacks coach and the offensive coordinator. In fact, he was the play-caller on the last Southern Miss team to win a conference title in 2011, serving under Larry Fedora. Those Golden Eagles won a school-record 12 games, averaged 36 points a game and stunned undefeated and seventh-ranked Houston at Houston 49-28 for the Conference USA championship. That Houston team would go on to trounce Penn State in the Cotton Bowl. That USM team would beat Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl.

Those four previous years in Hattiesburg were a primary reason Anderson joined Huff’s staff last year, he said. “There’s a sense of family here that you don’t have everywhere,” Anderson said. “This is a place I loved and really enjoyed my time here.”

Anderson said he has learned from his two Hattiesburg experiences, both under Fedora and Huff. Indeed, he had nothing but praise for Huff. He called Huff as “meticulous and detail-oriented” as anyone he had ever been around and added, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see him coaching for a national championship somewhere down the line.”

As for Anderson, 24 hours in a day aren’t enough currently, between recruiting, hiring assistants, preparing for a bowl game and getting ready for the two-week transfer portal window that begins Jan. 2. He talked like a man who relishes the task.

“Nobody is gonna out-work us, I promise,” he said. “I’ve done this before.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Something better for their daughters’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How sightings affect the community

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Advocates respond with aid, information

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the appeal of a Black death row inmate from Mississippi whose case was handled by a prosecutor with a history of dismissing Black jurors for discriminatory reasons.

A federal judge had previously overturned the murder conviction of the inmate, Terry Pitchford, but an appeals court reversed that ruling.

The justices stepped into the case involving the same prosecutor, former District Attorney Doug Evans, who was at the center of a high court case that resulted in a 2019 decision that overturned the death sentence and conviction of Curtis Flowers.

The case involving Pitchford will be argued in the spring.

U.S District Judge Michael P. Mills held that the judge who oversaw Pitchford’s trial didn’t give the man’s lawyer enough chance to argue that the prosecution was improperly dismissing Black jurors.

Mills wrote that his ruling was partially motivated by Evans’ actions in prior cases.

Pitchford was sentenced to death for his role in the 2004 killing of Reuben Britt, the owner of the Crossroads Grocery, just outside Grenada in northern Mississippi.

In Pitchford’s case, judges and lawyers whittled down the original jury pool of 61 white and 35 Black members to a pool with 36 white and five Black members, in part because so many Black jurors objected to sentencing Pitchford to death. Then prosecutors struck four more Black jurors, leaving only one Black person on the final jury.

The Supreme Court tried to stamp out discrimination in the composition of juries in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986. The court ruled then that jurors couldn’t be excused from service because of their race and set up a system by which trial judges could evaluate claims of discrimination and the race-neutral explanations by prosecutors.

When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Flowers, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that Evans had engaged in a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals.”

Flowers was tried six times in the shooting deaths of four people. He was released from prison in 2019 and the state dropped the charges against him the following year, after Evans turned the case over to state officials.

Evans resigned in mid-2023, after more than 30 years on the job and six months before the end of the four-year term he was then serving.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals has ordered a new murder trial for Tameshia Shelton, a 47-year-old mother of four who has long insisted on her innocence in the death of her sister’s boyfriend.

Judges vacated her conviction and ordered the new trial. The state attorney general’s office has not said whether it plans to appeal the ruling to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

“We are hopeful that the attorney general’s office will accept the Court of Appeals’ decision as final,” Shelton’s attorney, Sandra Levick, said. “After 10 long years in prison, it is time for Ms. Shelton, who did nothing wrong, to come home.  The charges should be dismissed.  If there is a new trial, the jury should hear all of the evidence, including the evidence of Ms. Shelton’s innocence that the original jury never heard.”

In 2024, Clay County Circuit Judge James Kitchens Jr. rejected Shelton’s request for a new trial, despite the state pathologist reversing his original ruling and saying the death was more likely a suicide.

The appeals court concluded Kitchens erred in denying Shelton’s request for a new trial. The court cited the pathologist’s reversal and the failure of defense lawyer Rod Ray to introduce the victim’s apparent suicide note into evidence at the murder trial.

Mississippi Innocence Project lawyers wrote that if it “offends the 8th and 14th Amendments to execute a person who could prove his actual innocence, then it offends the Constitution as well to consign her to prison for the remainder of her natural life for a crime she did not commit.” 

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Shelton’s sister, Shenikia. “Finally, I feel like our voice is getting heard and they’re seeing that an injustice was done. We’re extremely happy, and we’ve been thanking God ever since.”

She said her sister is “very happy and very excited” at the news.

In 2015, a Clay County jury convicted Shelton of murder in the 2009 shooting death of her sister’s 21-year-old boyfriend, Danelle Young. Shelton, who was sentenced to life, won’t be eligible for parole until 2043.

The prosecution never presented a motive for why Shelton would have killed Young.

In April 2022, Kitchens presided over the last of three days of hearings over whether Shelton deserved a new trial. Those hearings revealed evidence never shown to the jury, including an apparent suicide note Young wrote.

In 2009, forensic pathologist Dr. Liam Funte ruled Young’s death a homicide, basing that decision on the trajectory of the bullet from the front of the chest to the back “without significant deviation to left or right.”

Under questioning byLevick, Funte said at the time he had not seen that in a suicide, but he said he has seen such cases since and was “leaning toward suicide.”

In reversing the original ruling, he cited scientific studies on bullet trajectories in suicides and homicides. In one study, more than 36% of suicides had bullet trajectories that did not deviate to the left or right.

After a verbal argument in which Shelton’s sister said she told Young that she didn’t want to live with him, Young walked to Shelton’s trailer.

Shelton told authorities she was already in bed with her infant daughter when Young knocked on the window of the trailer. She went to the front door, and she said he told her that he only needed one bullet to kill a raccoon.

She said she replied that he might need more than one bullet and loaded her small .22 pistol and gave it to him.

After she heard a shot and he failed to return, she said she went outside, found him collapsed on the gravel driveway and called 911.

In the autopsy report, Funte concluded Young had been shot in the chest and that the gun was fired from less than an inch away.

Both he and another forensic pathologist, Dr. Randall Frost, demonstrated at hearings how the small gun could fire a self-inflicted shot, following the same path the bullet traveled through Young’s body.

Funte said he would now rule the death “undetermined.”

Kitchens never addressed the apparent suicide note in his 15-page decision. In that note, Young wrote, “I have no life without her (Shelton’s sister Ketina). … These are my last words. … Tell (your daughter) Treasure about me one day. Bye. Bye.”

At the hearing, Funte testified that the note would have been relevant to determining the manner of death.

“Considering the potentially exculpatory nature of this letter, we find it difficult to conclude that its absence did not prejudice Shelton’s defense,” Judge C.J. Barnes wrote for the appeals court in its 7-3 decision.

In his dissent, Judge John Emfinger wrote that a study provided by Shelton’s lawyers actually supports Funte’s original opinion of a homicide. That study showed that 82.4% of suicides were shots to the head and 16.3% were shots to the chest.

“So, according to that study, looking at those numbers, if it was a suicide, it would have been much more likely to be a shot to the head than to the chest, correct?” Special Assistant Attorney General Jackie Bost II asked Funte at the hearing.

“Yes,” Funte replied. “According to the study.”

This is why the trial judge determined that Funte’s change of opinion and the evidence used to support the changed opinion didn’t support reversal of the case, Emfinger wrote.

Updated 12/15/25: This story has been updated with comments from Shelton’s sister and attorney.

Whether you’ve just started your journey to financial health or are well on your way to reaching your financial goals, you’ve likely heard about the critical role investing plays in financial health.

While this is sound advice, you may have lingering questions about how to construct an investment portfolio or whether certain times are more opportune for investing. You might also be curious about whether you should focus on specific types of investments, such as stocks or bonds, or explore real estate and other commodities.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. While some strategies can benefit nearly all investors, your investment choices should align with your future financial plans – both short-term and long-term.

Here are four key strategies for building your investment portfolio and how to get started:

Learn what makes up an investment portfolio

Begin by familiarizing yourself with what an investment portfolio entails. A portfolio is a collection of investments that often includes an array of asset classes such as equities, or stocks, representing ownership stakes in corporations; fixed income securities including bonds, and tangible commodities like precious metals or agricultural products. Investors often view their investments as a whole through their portfolio to track their progress. encompassing a diverse

Assess your risk tolerance

Investment strategies are not universal. If your goal is to minimize risk and preserve your principal investment, consider a conservative portfolio with assets like bonds, which can be less prone to significant losses. Although a conservative portfolio could yield lower returns, it may be suitable if you’re nearing retirement and will need your funds soon—or if you simply prefer to minimize risk.

Conversely, a high-growth portfolio involves investing in higher-risk assets that can yield more substantial gains or losses. While it’s often recommended that younger people invest more aggressively since they have more time to recover from potential losses, it’s more about how soon you hope to achieve your investment goals.

You might opt for a balanced approach, diversifying your investments across multiple asset classes.

Diversify your portfolio

Plan to distribute your investments across different types of securities. For example, avoid concentrating all your money in a single stock, as a downturn in that stock could jeopardize your entire portfolio.

It’s also recommended not to put your money solely in one asset class (for example, just stocks) – instead, it’s generally better to spread your investments across different types of securities with different levels of risk.

This approach can help protect your money. For instance, you have money invested in several asset classes like bonds, stocks and commodities, and the bond market falls, only part of your investment portfolio will be affected.

Think long-term, no matter your goals

Regardless of strategy and allocation, it’s generally advisable to maintain a long-term perspective, as this allows for the compounding of returns and the ability to weather short-term market fluctuations. For investors, maintaining a long-term mindset can pave the way for success. Although markets can always have a bad day, week, month or even year, history suggests investors are less likely to experience losses over longer periods—especially in a diversified portfolio.

Reacting with fear during market downturns and withdrawing your investments could mean missing out on potential rebounds, which is why investors should focus on time in the market, not timing the market. Over the last 20 years, seven of the 10 best days occurred within 15 days of the 10 worst days.

The bottom line

With an understanding of what it takes to build your portfolio, now is the time to get started! You can open a brokerage account online at any time and you can connect with a financial advisor in person to learn more about investing products, so you can build the right portfolio for your financial needs and goals.

Correction: An earlier version of this post had an incorrect audio file.

Ridgeland Police Chief Brian Myers and New Albany Fire Chief Mark Whiteside said pending changes the Legislature made to the state employee retirement system will make it even harder to hire and retain first responders. They want the Legislature to revisit an overhaul of the Public Employee Retirement System set to take effect in March for those who serve in high-stress, low paying and dangerous first-responder jobs.

The state government of Mississippi is packed with agencies and commissions that are governed by independent boards and not by the governor.

President Donald Trump argues such independent boards on the federal level violate the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court recently heard arguments from the Trump administration on the issue, and a ruling next year in favor of the president would be far reaching and upend decades of judicial precedence.

Not long ago, a ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court abolishing the independent or regulatory boards would have been far fetched, but no longer thanks to the current Supreme Court’s willingness to acquiesce to Trump’s whims.

Is the same possible in Mississippi?

Could Gov. Tate Reeves or some future governor challenge the constitutionality of the independent agencies in this state?

Perhaps. 

After all, anybody can file a lawsuit. And it often appears that whatever Trump does, Reeves and many Mississippi politicians want to emulate. But there are some distinct differences between the powers of the governor under the Mississippi Constitution and the powers of the president under the United States Constitution.

Granted, the U.S. Constitution and Mississippi Constitution are similar in terms of the president and the governor both commanding the military, having broad pardon authority and being able to request reports from agencies.

Both the U.S. Congress and the Mississippi Legislature have created agencies with governing board members appointed by either the governor or the president. Often, the board members serve staggered terms, preventing one chief executive officer from appointing all the members.

The purpose of the independent boards – especially on the national level – is to take politics out of the governance, such as with the Federal Election Commission, the Federal Reserve, the National Labor Relations Board, the National Science Board and a host of others.

Trump wants to be able to fire the board members if he does not like their policies.

Mississippi also has multiple instances of the Legislature creating a governance system where appointed board members hire the executive director and set the policies of the agency. The Department of Mental Health, the Department of Health and the Community College Board are examples where, for whatever reason, the Legislature opted to create an agency with the executive director reporting to the board members instead of the governor.

But there are differences between the Mississippi system and the national system.

Some of the independent agencies are created by the Mississippi Constitution (the people) and not by the Legislature.

The Board of Education, arguably one of the state’s more important boards, is created constitutionally with the members appointed by a combination of the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. The state’s eight public universities are governed by a constitutionally created Board of Trustees of state Institutions of Higher Learning. The board members serve staggered terms appointed by governors. In some rare instances, one governor elected to two terms could have all the appointments on the IHL Board.

Then, of course, there are statewide elected officials who oversee their agencies. Most of those state positions – the secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, attorney general – are created by the Constitution and do not answer to the governor. But the insurance commissioner and the commissioner of agriculture and commerce are not constitutional officers. They are legislatively created.

It is not certain the U.S. Supreme Court will grant Trump’s wishes and abolish the independent boards, but many judicial experts believe it is possible if not likely.

But what is certain is that Mississippi’s Republican leadership follows the lead of Trump.

Still, it is difficult to see a scenario where a Mississippi governor would take the issue to court.

First of all, it is highly unlikely that the Mississippi Supreme Court would find a board or agency created by the Mississippi Constitution to be unconstitutional. That would be a difficult position for a judge to take.

In addition, a governor who has a strong relationship with lawmakers might have better luck changing the governance of those independent agencies that are not in the Mississippi Constitution by going to the Mississippi Legislature instead of petitioning the Mississippi Supreme Court.

But in the current crazy political climate, it seems anything is possible.

The Mississippi Mass Choir is honoring the Mississippi roots of its members with a statewide tour.

The “Sound of Church” tour began in Vicksburg on Nov. 23. Services across the state are scheduled through Dec. 21.

Jerry Mannery, the choir’s executive director, said that the tour is an opportunity to spread the Gospel to the communities where its members grew up and lived. 

“We understand that we are first and foremost ambassadors for Christ, and secondly we are ambassadors for the state of Mississippi as well,” he said.

Lillian Lilly of Belhaven is a lead singer, a soprano and one of the original members. She said she felt the Holy Spirit directing her to join the choir.

Lilly said the choir is like a big extended family. She is one of several members whose biological relatives – her son, daughter and granddaughter – are also in the choir.

“It’s a real spiritual experience to sing in church,” she said.

“We’ve had a wonderful time.”

Yolanda Clay-Moore is the choir’s marketing director and soprano singer. She has performed with the choir since 2012. She moved to Brandon when she was 10, and the Mississippi Mass Choir’s music was a major part of her church experience growing up. 

Clay-Moore considers it an honor to be part of the choir and still considers herself a fan.

When asked what she hopes audiences will take away from the services, she said, “The number one goal is always to bring someone to Christ, or to reunite them with Christ.” 

Gospel singer Frank Williams founded the Mississippi Mass Choir in 1988. Today, the choir has 214 members, has released 13 albums and has numerous achievements, including four Grammy nominations and a Stellar Gospel Music Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mannery has been the choir’s executive director since Williams’ death in 1993. 

“Right now this is a very difficult time to live in, and people are really under a lot of pressure, and people are bound by a lot of things that are outside of their control,” Mannery said. 

“But we know that when the spirit of the Lord shows up through our songs, that it sets people free,” he added.

The remaining Sound of Church tour dates currently scheduled across the state are Dec. 14 at Jerusalem Temple Church in Philadelphia. and Dec. 21 at White Hill MB Church in Tupelo.