Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

Guess what? Immigration is good for America, and it is good for Mississippi!

I have been a practicing attorney in Tupelo for 50 years. In 1992, a colleague suggested that I may wish to take on some immigration cases, as that appeared to be a growing area of the law.

I began by representing foreign students from Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Both universities have long been attended by foreign students from around the world. Strong engineering programs at both schools and the agriculture research programs at Mississippi State attracted students from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America and Europe. My immigration practice quickly grew and by 1995, I was working as a full-time immigration attorney in a small Mississippi town. Who could’ve predicted that?

In 1994, I took on my first case for a south Mississippi Federally Qualified Health Clinic (FQHC), seeking a J-1 waiver and work visa for two foreign pediatricians who were just finishing their pediatrics residency in the U.S. In return for a waiver of the mandated two-year foreign residence requirement, they agreed to work in a federally designated Health Professional Shortage Area for three years.

My practice in this area quickly grew, and as I write this today, over 80% of my practice is devoted to obtaining waivers and visas for extremely well qualified foreign physicians (they are trained in the finest residency and fellowship programs in the United States). Note that all 82 Mississippi counties are designated in whole or in part as either a Medically Underserved Area or a Health Professional Shortage Area.

In short, this means that Mississippi does not have enough doctors to serve our population, and thus the J-1 waiver program serves a very important role to incentivize foreign doctors to serve our underserved populations for up to three years. Many of these foreign doctors choose to remain in Mississippi following their initial three-year obligation. 

I have seen how immigrants from all parts of the world contribute to the economy and the well-being of Mississippi residents. Immigrants serve as high school teachers in rural Mississippi counties. They work as computer software engineers for Mississippi high technology firms. They work for the state of Mississippi in many professional positions. They work as nurses in our hospitals and nursing homes, and they work on our farms and tree farms as seasonal agricultural and non-agricultural workers.

Many of these workers are legally present in the United States and they hold lawful employment authorization. Everyone is aware that many workers are undocumented and entered the United States without authorization. Most of the undocumented workers toil in jobs that require them to pay Social Security and FICA withholding from their paychecks. These undocumented workers will not receive the benefit of the withholding amounts, but these funds help to support Social Security and FICA for U.S. beneficiaries of these programs. 

It is also important to keep in mind that many undocumented workers are faithful and stable spouses and parents to U.S. citizen families. When these people have remained in the United States for many years, have established ties to U.S. families and employers and are otherwise law-abiding, it seems that good public policy would favor providing them with a means of legalizing their status.

Instead, the current Trump administration is hell-bent on using the harshest means imaginable to forcibly remove all undocumented foreign-born persons. It is hard to imagine how our economy would operate if the Trump administration were able to remove large numbers of undocumented workers. In recent weeks, I have been contacted by numerous Mississippi companies, contractors and factory owners, who have stated that they do not know how they will continue in business if their foreign workforce is deported.

In the meantime, as the Trump Administration’s ham-handed tariff policies appear to be wreaking havoc on the U.S. and world economies, the immigration enforcement agencies are ratcheting up their lawless rendition of undocumented immigrants, and now it appears the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has deported two U.S. citizen children, one of whom suffers from metastatic cancer.

Late evening Friday, April 25, Erin Heber, an immigration attorney in New Orleans who represents the Honduran mother, reported that while she was preparing a habeas corpus petition to prevent the rendition of her clients, ICE clandestinely removed the undocumented mother and her two children from the United States in order to avoid the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts. It appears that the father of these children wanted them to remain in the U.S.

In any event, these U.S. citizen children were deprived of their constitutionally protected due process rights by a U.S. government agency. Before being removed from the United States, these children had the right to be represented in a court of appropriate jurisdiction, where their interests would have been protected by an appointed guardian ad litem.

These acts by ICE agents represent the most heinous and terroristic conduct imaginable. Under the law, ICE has the authority to remove persons from the United States, but only after the immigrant is provided due process by a court of competent jurisdiction or by expedited removal proceedings under U.S. law. When ICE acts to render U.S. citizens without due process beyond the reach of U.S. court jurisdiction, we can be sure that we are witnessing the destruction of our 250-year-old democracy, and every U.S. citizen of the United States should be alarmed and outraged. Members of Congress and the courts must act to protect the due process rights of U.S. citizens and lawful residents, as well as all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States. 

FBI Director Kash Patel recently posted on social media “Just NOW, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction—after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week.”

Judge Dugan has been charged with enabling the escape of an undocumented immigrant through a jury room off the courtroom where she presided, allegedly for the purpose of avoiding arrest by ICE agents who were waiting outside the courtroom. The facts are unclear as to whether the judge was actually attempting to assist the person to avoid arrest. He was arrested in the street outside the courthouse. But this heavy-handed arrest of a state judge by the FBI appears to represent another assault on the judiciary by the Trump administration.

It is important to understand that federal, state and local judges are charged with the authority and responsibility to carry out and control the orderly conduct of judicial proceedings. The arrest of a judge by FBI for events stemming from court could be a violation of state court authority and appears to be unprecedented in U.S. history. FBI conduct in this case is clearly intended as a chilling message to all judges in the United States.

Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared on the Fox News Channel to talk about the arrest and to attack the judiciary. “What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me,” she said. “The [judges] are deranged is all I can think of. I think some of these judges think that they are beyond and above the law. They are not, and we are sending a very strong message today…if you are harboring a fugitive…we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”

Many believe the Trump administration’s attack on the judiciary is part of its strategy to establish one-man authoritarian rule. It is reminiscent of the Netanyahu government’s attempt to neutralize the Israeli Supreme Court in 2023, which led to mass protests in Israel. The attack on the U.S. judiciary, the law profession, the media and on U.S. universities is characteristic of past authoritarian regime’s takeover of democracies (i.e. Hungary, Turkey, Russia, Belorussia).

In order to preserve our democracy, the American people, the legal profession, the universities, the independent press and the judiciary must continually and persistently speak out.

Barry Walker is a graduate of Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi School of Law. He has been a practicing attorney since 1975 and has practiced immigration law in Tupelo since 1992.