Mississippi
Illegal immigration costs Mississippi over $100 million, auditor says
Trump’s third-country deportations illegal, judge rules
A federal judge ruled the Department of Homeland Security’s third country deportations illegal, citing danger to immigrants in unknown territories.
When some lawmakers in the Mississippi Legislature took their immigration bills to the floor this session, a question emerged among opponents. Are these measures really necessary?
Mississippi has a smaller population of immigrants than its other southeastern counterparts, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and the state has mainly remained in the background as its neighbors have been targeted by task force raids.
The lack of federal attention to the Magnolia State hasn’t stopped many Republican lawmakers and state officials, including State Auditor Shad White, from maintaining that immigration without legal permission presents a major threat to Mississippi. At the crux of White’s argument for stronger local and national enforcement is money. One hundred million dollars, to be specific.
That amount, $100 million, is what White said immigrants without legal status in the country cost Mississippi taxpayers every year. He explained the math behind the total and its significance to residents in an April 22 interview with the Clarion Ledger.
The first piece of the puzzle was to estimate the number of people living in the state without legal status, White said, a calculation guided by data from the U.S. Census and Department of Homeland Security.
“We settled on 22,000 illegal immigrants living in Mississippi,” he said. “It’s important to mention that that is a very, very conservative estimate. It’s the lower bound of what that number could be.”
Both the number of immigrants in the country illegally and the amount that they cost taxpayers could be, and likely are, greater than the estimate, White said. The numbers have also almost definitely changed since the auditor’s office first researched and compiled the report at the end of 2024.
When the office reached a consensus on the number of people, White said, analysts looked at three major cost buckets: education, health care and prisons. These areas were the ones with the largest potential price tags, he said.
Every child, regardless of immigration status, is entitled to a public education in the United States. The office estimated that around 2,500 children, roughly 0.57% of the total public enrollment last school year, were in the country without legal status.
The cost for these students, based on the Mississippi Student Funding Formula approved in 2024, is $17 million. On top of that, White said, many of these children would likely receive funding supplements for low-income students and English language learners.
The total taxpayer cost in education totals around $25 million a year, the report stated. Neither the report nor White detailed how analysts determined the number of students who would qualify as low-income or English language learners.
The health care total is likely an even more conservative number, White said, in part because the office didn’t have enough data to make an estimate as comprehensive as he would have preferred.
“If you walked into an emergency room right now, you’re going to be treated. It doesn’t matter who you are,” he said. “Add onto that the cost of anyone who is an illegal immigrant mother who walks into a hospital and gives birth. Of course, we’re going to treat her, but that cost will flow back to taxpayers.”
Citing numbers from health policy organization KFF (formerly known as Kaiser Family Foundation), the report stated that those births would likely cost around $4 million each year. Emergency room visits would probably total around $45 million annually, assuming about half of the undocumented population goes to the ER once a year.
The total estimate in the health care section of the report is $77 million, because it includes approximately $28 million spent providing Medicaid services to the U.S. citizen children of immigrants without legal status. Without the Medicaid treatment for U.S. citizens, the health care cost is around $49 million.
The final area is criminal justice, White explained, which used detention data collected from prisons and jails to estimate that 79 incarcerated people did not have legal status in the country. Multiplied by the daily cost of incarcerating a person in Mississippi, the report stated that taxpayers would contribute around $1.7 million every year to keeping them in jail.
This amount is also likely much higher, White said, because the office didn’t have the means to include the costs incurred before a person goes to prison.
“When we looked at the prison costs, we did not look into the cost of investigating crimes committed by illegal immigrants,” he said. “The cost of the criminal investigation was some non-zero number, we just don’t know what it was.”
When the report as first released, White recounted, some people told him that it should have included the amount that undocumented immigrants contribute in local and state taxes. He dismissed that as people “trying to distract from the larger point” that people without legal status “drive costs higher.”
Expressing his support for the bill that passed making illegal immigration a state crime, White said he is hopeful that the legislature will continue to pursue measures strengthening the state’s approach to immigration enforcement.
“When people see the $100 million cost, I think people think, ‘What else could we be using that for?’” he said. “It could be used for massive teacher pay increases. We could be well on the way to eliminating the grocery tax completely. It could result in real improvements in people’s lives.”
Bea Anhuci is the state government reporter for the Clarion Ledger. She has covered immigration in the state since the start of 2026. Email her at banhuci@usatoday.com.
Mississippi
Governor: At least 47 homes, 50 roads damaged by Mississippi storms, flooding – SuperTalk Mississippi
Gov. Tate Reeves has released updated damage assessments following the severe weather and flooding that inundated parts of southern Mississippi last week.
According to Reeves, assessments through the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency are ongoing, and disaster aid is still being distributed through a mix of federal, state, and local agencies, along with nonprofits. But numbers as of Monday morning showed dozens of homes and businesses damaged and even more public roads affected.

Among the counties with significant impacts are Covington, Forrest, George, Greene, Hancock, Jackson, Pearl River, Perry and Stone. Across those counties and others, at least 47 homes were affected, seven of which were completely destroyed. Nine businesses sustained damaged, six of which are considered major. One farm sustained major damage.
50 public roadways were affected, including four that are considered major and four that were completely destroyed. Two bridges sustained major damage, while two public buildings sustained minor damage.
Reeves said two rivers are in the moderate flood stage – Leaf River near McClain and the Pascagoula River at Graham Ferry.
15 other waterways are in the minor flood stage: Big Black River near Bentonia, Biloxi River near Lyman, Chickasawhay River at Enterprise, Chickasawhay River at Leakesville, East Hobolochitto Creek near Caesar, Pascagoula River at Merrill, Pearl River at Jackson, Pearl River near Pearl River, Pearl River near Philadelphia, Pearl River at Rockport, Strong River at D’Lo, Tallahala Creek at Laurel, Tuscolameta Creek at Laurel, West Hobolochitto Creek near McNeill, and Wolf River around Gulfport.


Damage reports could have worsened on Monday with additional rounds of severe weather in some parts of the state. The worst of the storms and floods came with the remnants of what was Tropical Storm Arthur late last week and into the weekend.
Mississippi
Family of 1-year-old killed by police at a Walmart in Mississippi wants video released
(AP) – A Mississippi family whose 1-year-old child was killed when police fired into a moving vehicle said Monday they want authorities to release video showing whether officers were in danger of being struck when one of them opened fire.
The shooting has sparked outrage in the small city of Senatobia, where some say it’s the latest in a series of troubling encounters between police and Black residents.
Kohen Wiley was riding with his mother and another woman in a Walmart parking lot on June 14 when police responded to a shoplifting call. The family says they were driving away, while the officers say the car was heading toward them.
“I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,” Vellesiya Wiley said at a news conference Monday.
The other woman in the car, whose name has not been released, suffered “critical injuries,” according to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the inquiry.
Standing alongside Kohen’s parents and grandparents at a local church, civil rights attorney Ben Crump told reporters Monday that the best way to determine whether the officers were at risk is to publicly release any body camera, dash camera or Walmart security camera video.
“If that is the truth, then show us that,” Crump said. “The longer you delay releasing the video, the more distrustful we become.”
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation declined to comment on what videos investigators have or whether they would be released, agency spokesperson Bailey Martin said Monday.
“This case has been made a top priority,” Martin said in an emailed statement, “and we currently have multiple agents working tirelessly to ensure every aspect of the investigation is thoroughly examined.”
The agency says the officers weren’t hurt. Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford did not return a phone message seeking comment Monday.
State investigators gave an initial account of the shooting last week, saying that when Senatobia police arrived at the Walmart, they found two women and a child getting into a car and driving away.
“Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one. An officer then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene,” the agency statement said.
Kohen’s mother has said the shoplifting call was over a box of diapers that her friend was carrying — and that she believes her friend had paid for the diapers. State investigators declined to comment on those details.
Crump questioned why police didn’t let the car go and take down the license plate number.
“They were called over a box of diapers and a family now has to bury their baby,” Crump said Monday. “You cannot put those two things next to each other and call it reasonable policing.”
Crump also said an independent autopsy would be performed.
While there’s no question the child was shot by police, he said, details about the angles at which any bullets struck the child could yield clues as to whether the officer fired from in front of the car or off to the side — and therefore whether that officer was in any danger.
Policing expert Ian Adams, who teaches criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, told The Associated Press last week that police should know that “shooting into a moving vehicle is a very bad idea and one to be avoided at almost all costs,” noting the danger to passengers and other bystanders.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Mississippi
Mississippi Association of Coaches Inducts Six New Members
Six new members were inducted into the Mississippi Association Coaches Hall of Fame on Friday.
Five electees and one surprise honorary inductee announced at the evening’s end.
Each says the MAC HOF is a special one and this is the ultimate honor for a coach in Mississippi.
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