Bill would fund local law enforcement to partner with ICE

In a tense environment in which local and state law enforcement are increasingly in conflict with ICE over its tactics across the United States, a Mississippi lawmaker wants to encourage collaboration through financial incentives.

A bill introduced in the state legislature this week would create a grant program to reimburse local law enforcement agencies for the costs of partnering with federal immigration authorities to expand its role in immigration enforcement.

Senate Bill 2329, dubbed the Mississippi Glacier (ICE) Act, was filed Tuesday by Sen. Michael McLendon (R-Hernando). The legislation would establish a dedicated fund within the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to support agencies that enter into 287(g) agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The federal 287(g) program, named for a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act, allows state and local law enforcement officers to perform certain immigration enforcement functions after receiving training from ICE. Under McLendon’s proposal, Mississippi would reimburse participating agencies for expenses including detention bed space, equipment, training, travel and lodging.

“Mississippi is not going to pretend illegal immigration is someone else’s problem,” McLendon said in a statement. “If you are here illegally, we are going to work with ICE to detain you and send you back to the country you came from, which more often than not is a far greater punishment than jail.”

If passed, the bill would take effect July 1, 2026. Funding would come from state appropriations as well as federal grants, endowments or gifts.

The language of the bill does not address whether reimbursements would be connected in any way to the legal status of detainees, including whether the funds could be used to detain and house U.S. citizens.

State has long history of immigration raids

Mississippi has been the site of some of the largest workplace immigration raids in U.S. history, operations that have shaped the state’s approach to immigration enforcement for nearly two decades.

In August 2008, federal agents raided the Howard Industries electrical transformer plant in Laurel, detaining nearly 600 workers in what was then the largest single-workplace immigration raid in U.S. history. The company later pleaded guilty to federal charges and paid a $2.5 million fine, while its human resources manager received six months of house arrest—the only company official charged.

Then, on Aug. 7, 2019—the first day of school for many Mississippi children—ICE agents descended on seven chicken processing plants across central Mississippi, arresting 680 workers in the nation’s largest single-state workplace enforcement action. The raids targeted facilities owned by Koch Foods, PECO Foods, and other poultry companies in Morton, Canton, Bay Springs, Carthage, Pelahatchie and Sebastopol.

The 2019 raids devastated communities across the state’s poultry belt. Children returned home from their first day of school to find parents missing. Churches and community organizations scrambled to provide food and shelter. Five years later, many families remain separated, with workers either deported or still navigating immigration proceedings.

While hundreds of workers faced criminal charges for identity theft, the companies themselves emerged largely unscathed. In August 2020, the Justice Department indicted four chicken plant executives—but Koch Foods and PECO Foods, which owned five of the seven raided facilities, faced no charges.

Building on foundation of anti-sanctuary law

Mississippi’s legislative approach to immigration hardened in 2017, when then-Gov. Phil Bryant signed Senate Bill 2710, banning sanctuary city policies statewide. The law prohibits cities, counties, universities and state agencies from adopting policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities—even though no Mississippi jurisdiction had declared itself a sanctuary city.

The bill effectively voided Jackson’s 2010 anti-racial profiling ordinance, which had prevented police officers from asking about immigration status during routine encounters. Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, said at the time that he did not believe any city in the state had ever been likely to become a sanctuary city.

Since then, the legislature has considered increasingly aggressive immigration proposals. The 2025 session produced several bills that ultimately failed, including measures that would have gone far beyond existing federal partnerships.

What failed in 2025

The Glacier Act represents a more modest approach compared to the immigration enforcement bills that died during the 2025 legislative session, when several proposals failed to make it out of committee before a Feb. 4 deadline.

House Bill 1484, filed by Rep. Justin Keen (R-Byhalia), drew national attention for its proposal to certify private bounty hunters to apprehend people in the state without authorization. The bill would have offered $1,000 rewards for detaining undocumented immigrants and classified being in Mississippi without legal status as “trespassing”—a felony punishable by life imprisonment without parole unless deportation occurred within 24 hours.

Legal experts and some lawmakers questioned its constitutionality. Rep. Jansen Owen (R-Poplarville), vice chairman of the House Judiciary B Committee, said that “the state doesn’t need to get in the business of enforcing federal immigration law.”

Another measure, Senate Bill 2511, would have created an Illegal Immigration Enforcement Unit within the Department of Public Safety and imposed fees on money transmission businesses to fund it. That bill also failed to advance.

The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance credited the Legislative Black Caucus with helping defeat these measures, with organizer Nataly Camacho noting that Black legislators “understand this fight and cause because they’ve faced similar situations.”

McLendon framed his new proposal as addressing a practical concern: the financial burden on local jails. “Housing illegal immigrants is costly,” he said. “This bill will help alleviate that burden on sheriffs and county governments so that money can be used to hire more deputies, buy more equipment, or improve infrastructure.”

Existing 287(g) partnerships in Mississippi

Several Mississippi agencies have already entered into 287(g) agreements with ICE without state financial support. Four sheriff’s departments and two state offices currently participate in the program, with the Department of Public Safety having a pending agreement in Hinds County.

Madison County has maintained an agreement with ICE since 2018, and Hancock County since at least 2020. Both county jails serve as holding facilities for ICE administrative detainees—individuals not charged with criminal violations but held to ensure their presence through immigration court proceedings.

In September 2025, State Auditor Shad White announced that his office had entered into a 287(g) agreement, training two agents to assist ICE when needed.

“Last year our team found illegal immigration costs Mississippi taxpayers around $100 million per year in public education, healthcare, and criminal justice expenses,” White said at the time. “So, if we can do anything to stop this by helping ICE, we will do it.”

National expansion

The Mississippi legislative proposal comes amid a dramatic nationwide expansion of 287(g) agreements under the Trump administration. According to the Department of Homeland Security, partnerships between ICE and local law enforcement have increased 609 percent—from 135 agreements to more than 950.

Beginning in October 2025, the federal government began fully reimbursing participating agencies for the salaries and benefits of trained 287(g) officers, including overtime coverage up to 25 percent of annual salary. The administration has also offered quarterly performance awards based on agencies’ success in locating and processing individuals identified by ICE.

The federal “Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in July 2025, appropriated approximately $75 billion to ICE over four years—nearly tripling the agency’s previous budget—with significant funding dedicated to expanding local partnerships. The Brennan Center for Justice described the funding surge as creating a “deportation-industrial complex.”

Legislative path forward

McClendon’s bill has been referred to committee, where it will need to survive the same deadline that killed last year’s immigration proposals. The 2026 legislative session began Jan. 7.

McLendon, who represents DeSoto County in north Mississippi, has made immigration a centerpiece of his 2026 legislative agenda. Unlike the more aggressive proposals that failed last year, the Glacier Act focuses on providing financial support to agencies already authorized to participate in federal programs rather than creating new enforcement mechanisms.

The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, which helped defeat last year’s bills through advocacy at the Capitol, has said it will continue monitoring the session for any measures targeting undocumented immigrants. Chandler, the group’s executive director, warned that lawmakers may attempt to fold language from the dead bills into other legislation.

Mississippi already prohibits sanctuary city policies under that 2017 law and fully cooperates with federal immigration enforcement. The state’s approximately 25,000 undocumented residents—comprising less than 1 percent of the total population—face what advocates describe as among the most challenging environments in the nation for immigrants without legal status.