Natchez, Mississippi: Showing immigrants the door
Residents weigh in on city's distinction as largest ICE detention center by population
Natchez is the oldest city on the Mississippi River, with a population of about 15,000, and was once a major immigration destination, attracting new arrivals from France, Spain, England, other parts of the United States and, involuntarily, Africa.
Today, the city plays a very different role — as a major portal for the expulsion of immigrants.
The Adams County Correctional Center, a private prison operated by CoreCivic under contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, located in an unincorporated area of Adams County outside the city, currently holds the largest number of immigrants among all detention facilities in the U.S., with an average daily population of more than 2,100 detainees as of mid-May, according to this tracking site.
Mississippi resident and Danish national Kasper Eriksen is being held at another ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana, about an hour west of Natchez. The two facilities are located in a swath of the Gulf Coast region known as “detention alley” because 14 of the nation’s 20 largest immigrant detention centers are located there.
The Washington Post (requires subscription) recently quoted an official with a New York City legal nonprofit claiming the administration’s strategy of dispersing detainees to Gulf Coast prisons “is to isolate the individuals from their communities, their legal support, their families, in hopes that media attention and mobilization around their cases dies down.”
Residents in communities that host ICE detainees often tout the economic benefits that come with utilizing facilities that are mostly operated by for-profit companies. Others grumble that taxpayers are footing the bill for morally questionable policies. Many don’t think or realize Homeland Security is an issue that is close to home at all.
Adams County, with Natchez as its the county seat, has about 28,674 residents, which means that 2,100 detainees is no small number.
Yet National media attention is one thing. Local attention is another. Does proximity to such a facility affect the lives and opinions of marketing managers, writers, barflies, cement truck drivers, waitresses, or even prison salespersons at all? Do any of them even think about the role their community plays in this outcropping of American history, or that some of the detainees are in the U.S. legally, were in the process of becoming naturalized citizens, and have not broken any law?
I asked residents of Natchez what they thought. The following are their responses to the question, “How do you feel about Natchez being a major way station for expelling people from America?”
“I am all for it! It brings much needed jobs for our area. I have been through the prison and it is clean and serves its purpose. Every prisoner there is serving a sentence for breaking our law. When their time is up, they are deported. The prison also helps our local law enforcement with their extra supplies and use of their tear gas chamber, where I have shed a few.” -- Stephen Guido, 71, retired drilling contractor and reserve sheriff’s deputy
“I work with prison systems, so even though I don’t contract with ICE facilities, Natchez’s involvement doesn’t shock me. I see inside the system every day. As for the issue, if they are actual criminal illegal aliens, I absolutely think that they should be deported. I am all for immigration, but go through the process to become a legal citizen. The keyword is that they are here illegally. I understand that they may be escaping danger in their country and I truly feel for them! We should offer sanctuary to those that truly need it, but that shouldn’t be abused by people that don’t truly need it. The U.S. should streamline the citizenship process if it’s so hard to go through, but we all have laws and rules in which we have to abide. The same goes for American citizens when we enter another country.” – Correctional industry salesperson, in their 30s, who spoke on condition of anonymity
“I haven’t heard this, but if so, I’m not happy. ICE practices violate civil liberties, and their methods of enforcement are not good. Maybe that’s why they cover their faces when they make raids. Everyone should be given their due process.” -- Edward Killelea, 60, cost analysis specialist
“I’m not sure I had heard about Adams County being that important, but I did know that Jena was. I’m quite sure they are being paid well to house them. I’m really okay with it, they have to be housed somewhere until deportation orders are finalized, so, may as well be Natchez! Up to 20 million people were allowed to cross the border under the Biden administration, but Trump ran on the platform of securing the border and he won so I am all for it.” -- Jane Weems, 61, restaurateur
“It’s not only personally tragic, but it’s also expensive for the taxpayers who have to feed, shelter and medicate them. These are people who have come to the United States legally seeking asylum. Most of them have family already living in the United States with whom they could be staying, free from the American taxpayers having to foot the bill. Now they’re being arrested and jailed, even during their court hearings, to be sent to countries like El Salvador and Sudan, where they will live short, brutal lives. The private prison business makes out like bandits while these innocent people who fear for their lives are being sent back to places where they’ll be killed. Some of those arrested were already legal American citizens. If they can arrest legal American citizens, they can arrest you and me.” -- Elodie Pritchart, 67, writer
“America throughout its history has been known as the Great Melting Pot, but sadly our politicians turned the stovetop off decades ago. These individuals were ‘manifesting destiny’ and seeking the American dream, just as my ancestors did a century and half ago. Except now you’re criminalized for wanting a better way of life for yourself and your family.” -- Luke Cockerham, 32, marketing manager
“That’s just surprising to me. I didn’t even know we were doing that here because we’re so small. I never thought about it being so close to home” -- Izzy Dupre, 19, waitress
“I didn’t know about that development. But since my wife is going through the process, I’m already in the middle of immigration issues. It’s a damn shame when this is a problem in the first place. As someone who has been through the immigration system with my wife, I can attest to the difficulty it can be to come to the United States.
“I myself work with many hardworking men in the concrete industry, 90 percent of whom are Latin and Central Americans. We almost always get along. Hell, I teach them English and they teach me Spanish. My sympathies go out to them.
“However, it would be disingenuous on my part and the part of my citizenry to have to treat these folks as if they do not represent something of their own local governments. Given that I understand there may be persecutions happening now that caused them to flee their own local municipalities, it is still not the job of the American people to accept all throughout the world who claim asylum. Given that, and the fact that the largest percentage of these migrants are military aged males, it would seem it would be in the better interests of the average American to have to worry about our own plight, in our own land, to take care of our own problems to be their example of how a nation may deal with her problems.” -- John Dicks, 34, cement truck driver and plant operator
Image: Ice House America kiosk, Natchez, June 2025 (Kerry Rose Graning)
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