Bounty hunters could target migrants under proposed Mississippi bill

A proposed bill in Mississippi proposes the use of bounty hunters to support the Trump administration’s illegal immigration crackdown on a local level. 

House Bill 1484 proposes the creation of the so-called Mississippi Illegal Aliens Certified Bounty Hunter Program, which would certify licensed bail bond agents and surety recovery agents for purposes of finding and detaining anyone in the country illegally.

The bill would also create a hotline of sorts where people can report violations and leave anonymous tips, and those registered in the new program could get a kickback for each successful deportation they facilitate. 

A Mississippi district attorney, Matthew Barton, proposed the bill, which was authored by Republican State Representative Justin Kean. 

What they're saying:

Kean spoke to LiveNOW from FOX about the bill. 

He said the bill fills "a neighborhood watch sort of gap for people that deal with criminals on a day-to-day basis."

"I think the initial knee jerk reaction for a lot of people is they see this and it says, ‘Illegal Alien Bounty Hunter Program," and they just assume that people are going to run rampant and just start scooping up individuals and start hauling them off," Kean added.

"We want licensed, legal people. They go through a vetting process and then specifically target those that should not be here that are a detriment to our national safety, our neighborhoods and our schools and so forth."

He added that this is "an opportunity for Mississippi to kind of take that step to support (President Trump), and (for local lawmakers) to illustrate to the voters what we're trying to do and we hear what you’re saying."

The other side:

Immigration attorneys, advocacy groups and community leaders tell the Mississippi Free Press that the measure is unlikely to gain traction, amounting to a political stunt designed to stoke fear and generate news coverage.

Trump immigration crackdown

FILE - A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, along with other Federal law enforcement agencies, attends a pre-enforcement meeting in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. Photographer: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty

Big picture view:

During his first week in office, President Donald Trump signed 10 executive orders on immigration and issued a slew of edicts to carry out promises of mass deportations and border security.

Immigration arrests made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have spiked and included highly publicized operations, including in Atlanta, Dallas and, most prominently, Chicago.

RELATED: Tracking reported migrant ICE raids, arrests: List of states

Trump expanded arrest priorities to anyone in the country illegally, not just people with criminal convictions, public safety or national security threats and migrants stopped at the border. 

Trump has said illegal immigration threatens public safety and national security. 

By the numbers:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it made an average of 710 immigration arrests daily from Thursday through Monday, Jan. 23-26, up from a daily average of 311 in a 12-month period through September under President Joe Biden. 

If that rate holds, it would surpass ICE's previous high mark set in the Obama administration, when daily arrests averaged 636 in 2013.

ICE hasn't said how many people it has deported since Trump took office gain, but the administration has highlighted removal flights, including the use of military planes.

The Source: Information in this article was taken from a LiveNOW from FOX interview with Missouri State Representative Justin Kean, and from the text of Missouri House Bill 1484. Background information about Trump’s latest immigration policies came from The Associated Press. This story was reported from Detroit. 

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