Bill Watch · The 13th Amendment Loophole, Part 1 of 3 · October 15, 2026, 9:00 AM CDT
- Part 1: The bounty hunter blueprint (you are here)
- Part 2: Life sentences and the 13th Amendment loophole · Oct 16
- Part 3: Who profits, and how to fight back · Oct 17
- Companion page: Controversial Bills Tracker and action plans
In January 2025, a Mississippi lawmaker filed a bill that would have paid $1,000 for a tip and locked a person up for the rest of their life for being in the state without papers.
The bill was House Bill 1484, filed by Rep. Justin Keen, a Republican.[1] It never got a vote. It died in committee on February 4, 2025.[2]
That could have been the end of it. It wasn’t.
Fourteen months later, the Mississippi Legislature passed Senate Bill 2114. It made unlawful entry a state crime and told every county that runs a jail to try to sign an enforcement agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).[3] Gov. Tate Reeves signed it on April 8, 2026. It took effect July 1.[4]
Rep. Keen voted for it.[5]
This series follows one question from a dead bill to the U.S. Constitution: what happens when a state turns being undocumented into a crime that can carry a life sentence, in a country where the 13th Amendment still allows forced labor “as a punishment for crime”?
- HB 1484 would have created a “Mississippi Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program” and a felony carrying life without parole. It died in committee Feb. 4, 2025.
- Its text is nearly word-for-word the same as Missouri’s SB 72, filed weeks earlier. That bill also stalled.
- SB 2114, a different and milder law, has been in force in Mississippi since July 1, 2026.
- As of Oct. 14, 2026, ICE lists 70 signed 287(g) agreements in Mississippi, covering 61 agencies. 50 of them were signed after SB 2114 became law.
- ICE’s own death list shows 36 deaths in custody in fiscal 2026, up from 24 the year before.
The featured image is an AI-generated illustration commissioned for this series. It does not show real people or a real event.
1. What HB 1484 actually said
Read the bill itself and it is short. It does three things.
First, it creates a crime called “trespass by an illegal alien.” A person commits it by being undocumented, knowingly entering and staying in Mississippi, and being here when “a licensed bounty hunter or a peace officer” catches them.[1]
Second, it sets the punishment.
“…life imprisonment without eligibility for probation, parole, conditional release, or release except by act of the Governor or the natural death of such person.”
— Mississippi HB 1484 (2025), Section 1(3)(a)
Third, it builds a machine to find people. The Department of Public Safety would run a 24-hour hotline, email address and web portal for anonymous tips. A tip that led to an arrest and imprisonment would earn the tipster $1,000.
Licensed bail bond agents and “surety recovery agents” could apply to become certified “bounty hunters” for four-year terms, to “find and detain” people the state calls illegal aliens.
| Section 1 | What the bill says | What it would mean |
|---|---|---|
| (2) | Being undocumented, entering and staying in Mississippi is “trespass by an illegal alien.” | Presence itself becomes a state felony. |
| (3)(a) | Life imprisonment, no probation or parole, release only by the governor or death. | The harshest sentence Mississippi gives short of death. |
| (3)(b) | Does not apply if the federal government signs an agreement to take the person and deport them within 24 hours. | Prison is the default; deportation is the exception. |
| (4) | Forever barred from voting, a driver’s license, public benefits and legal residency in the state. | Permanent loss of status, even after release by the governor. |
| (5) | Every person apprehended must give a DNA sample. | Applies to anyone caught, before any conviction. |
| (6) | Hotline staffed by 65 off-duty or retired officers; $1,000 reward for a report that leads to arrest and imprisonment. | Paid, anonymous tips from the public. |
| (7) | Bail bond and surety recovery agents may be certified as bounty hunters for four years. | Private, commission-driven agents doing arrests. |
| (8) | A dedicated fund in the state treasury; leftover money never returns to the general fund. | A permanent pot of money for the program. |
One detail gives away where the bill came from. Section 1(8) says the fund holds money “appropriated by the general assembly.” Mississippi has no general assembly. Its lawmaking body is called the Legislature.
Missouri’s lawmaking body is the General Assembly. Weeks before Keen filed, Missouri Sen. David Gregory filed SB 72, with the same program, the same $1,000 reward, the same four-year certification and the same “natural death” life sentence.[6] Missouri’s bill got a hearing and went no further; the House speaker said he saw no appetite for it.[7][8]
In other words, this was a template. Templates get filed again.
2. The bounty-to-prison pipeline
Put the sections in order and they form a pipeline. Each stage hands the person to the next, and at two stages someone gets paid.
3. The bill died. Its ideas didn’t.
SB 2114 is not HB 1484. There are no bounty hunters in it, no $1,000 reward and no life sentence. But it moves Mississippi down the same road.[3]
Here is what the law does, in its own words:
| SB 2114 section | What it does |
|---|---|
| 2 | Lets the Department of Public Safety work to determine “the number and identities of all illegal aliens residing in the State,” including names, addresses and criminal history. |
| 3 | Orders the department to seek a 287(g) agreement with ICE within 120 days of July 1, 2026, to encourage “every county” to take part. |
| 4 | By Oct. 1, 2026, each county agency that runs a jail must “make a reasonable attempt” to sign a 287(g) agreement, then report quarterly if it has not. |
| 5(1) | Entering Mississippi from a foreign nation anywhere but a port of entry: a misdemeanor with at least 6 months in state prison custody. |
| 5(2) | Anyone convicted of a crime punishable by a year or more who is found to be unlawfully present gets an extra felony: at least 2 years, or 3 to 5 years for violent or sex offenses. |
| 7 | No expunction and no nonadjudication for anyone charged or convicted under the act. |
| 8 | The attorney general can sue any government entity that does not comply. |
| 11 | The law repeals itself on July 1, 2028, unless lawmakers renew it. |
The final votes split sharply. The Senate adopted the final version 34 to 16. The House adopted it 76 to 39.[9][5]
Why does a state think it can do this now? Texas passed a similar law, SB 4, in 2023. On April 24, 2026, the full Fifth Circuit threw out the challenge on standing, without deciding whether the law is constitutional.[10] On May 29, a Fifth Circuit panel lifted the last block, and Texas can now enforce it.[11] Mississippi sits in the same federal circuit.
4. Mississippi’s rush to sign up with ICE
The 287(g) program lets ICE deputize local and state officers to do immigration work. ICE says its “Task Force Model” allows officers “to enforce limited immigration authority while performing routine police duties.”[12]
ICE publishes the list of every agency that has signed. As of October 14, 2026, it shows 70 agreements in Mississippi, held by 61 agencies.[12] Every one of them was signed in 2025 or 2026.
The state itself is in. The Department of Public Safety signed in December 2025. The Department of Corrections, which runs Parchman and the state’s other prisons, signed all three models on May 14, 2026.[12] So did the state auditor’s office and, in June 2026, the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
Nationally, ICE lists 2,676 agreements. Mississippi ranks 12th by number, behind larger states like Texas and Florida.
5. The ICE campaign, right now
Mississippi is moving inside a much larger national build-out.
In July 2025, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It gave about $45 billion for immigration detention and $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement and deportation.[13]
On July 11, 2026, ICE held 65,765 people in detention. Of them, 70.6% had no criminal conviction.[14] By mid-July, ICE said it had removed more than 350,000 people in the fiscal year.[15]
This week shows what that looks like on the street.
In Houston on Saturday, Oct. 10, an unmarked ICE vehicle struck Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, as he ran from a traffic stop. He was not the person agents were looking for, his lawyer and advocates say.[17]
ICE says he “ran in front of an ICE vehicle.” Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told NBC News that his investigators watched the surveillance video and believe the collision was not accidental. His office has opened an independent investigation.[17]
In New York, an ICE officer fired into a car during an arrest on Oct. 8, hitting 28-year-old Oscar Belgal below his left ear while his 5-year-old son was in the car. He survived and was treated at a hospital.[18]
The military is part of it too. National Guard troops have patrolled Washington, D.C., since August 2025 and have supported arrest operations; a federal appeals court heard arguments over that deployment on Oct. 14.[19] South Dakota just extended its seven Guard members who help ICE process deportations through September 2027; the governor’s office says they have assisted with 1,013 deportations since 2025.[20]
And the net catches citizens. ProPublica has documented more than 500 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents. More than 100 were held after agents questioned their citizenship, and nearly all of them were people of color.[21]
6. Where Project 2025 fits
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership does not mention bounty hunters, and it does not ask states to hand out life sentences.[22] It would be wrong to say it wrote HB 1484.
What it does lay out is the federal side of the same machine: more local police doing ICE’s work, fewer limits on where and how arrests happen, more detention, and a role for the military.
| Mandate page | What Project 2025 recommends | What has happened |
|---|---|---|
| p. 3 | Promise No. 3: “Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats.” (Here “bounty” means the nation’s wealth, not a reward.) | Border and interior enforcement became a top federal priority. |
| p. 92 | Defense Priority No. 3: “Provide necessary support to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) border protection operations.” | Guard troops support ICE in several states and patrolled D.C. |
| p. 555 | Consider “active-duty military personnel and National Guardsmen to assist in arrest operations along the border.” | Guard members have supported arrest operations in D.C. |
| p. 141 | Direct ICE to take custody of people identified through the 287(g) program. | 287(g) agreements nationwide passed 2,600. |
| p. 153 | Bar ICE from denying any jurisdiction that applies to 287(g) “unless good cause is shown.” | Every Mississippi agreement on ICE’s list was signed in 2025 or 2026. There are now 70. |
| p. 142 | Civil arrests “anywhere in the United States, without warrant where appropriate”; rescind “sensitive zones.” | DHS rescinded the protected-areas guidance in January 2025. |
| p. 151 | Use all detention space and allow “tents” once permanent space is full. | About 66,000 people were in detention in July 2026; Congress funded $45 billion more. |
Put the state bills and the federal blueprint side by side and they fit. Washington builds the detention space and deputizes the local police. States like Mississippi supply the officers, the jails and, in bills like HB 1484, the long sentences.
Our Project 2025 Tracker follows the rest of the blueprint page by page.
What comes next
HB 1484 asked for life without parole. Tomorrow, Part 2 asks the harder question: what can a state do with a person it holds for life?
The answer is in the 13th Amendment, and in Mississippi’s own history.
Our new Controversial Bills Tracker follows SB 2114, HB 1484 and other bills, with an action plan for each.
Check it yourself: the sources
Primary sources are the documents and agencies themselves. Secondary sources are reporting and research built on them. Tertiary sources are reference works.
- Primary Mississippi Legislature, House Bill 1484 (2025 Regular Session), as introduced by Rep. Justin Keen. billstatus.ls.state.ms.us
- Primary Mississippi Legislature, HB 1484 bill history: referred Jan. 20, 2025; died in committee Feb. 4, 2025. billstatus.ls.state.ms.us
- Primary Mississippi Legislature, Senate Bill 2114 (2026 Regular Session), as sent to the governor. billstatus.ls.state.ms.us
- Primary Mississippi Legislature, SB 2114 bill history: approved by the governor April 8, 2026; effective July 1, 2026. billstatus.ls.state.ms.us
- Primary Mississippi House roll call adopting the SB 2114 conference report, 76-39. billstatus.ls.state.ms.us
- Primary Missouri Senate, SB 72 (2025), introduced by Sen. David Gregory: the same bounty hunter program and life sentence. senate.mo.gov
- Primary Missouri Senate, SB 72 bill information: hearing held, no further action. senate.mo.gov
- Secondary KCUR, Missouri House Speaker says ‘bounty hunter’ immigration bill has little chance to pass (Jan. 31, 2025). kcur.org
- Primary Mississippi Senate roll call adopting the SB 2114 conference report, 34-16. billstatus.ls.state.ms.us
- Secondary The Texas Tribune, Federal court lets Texas immigration law take effect (Apr. 24, 2026). texastribune.org
- Secondary FOX 7 Austin, Texas can enforce controversial immigration law, US appeals court decides (May 29, 2026). fox7austin.com
- Primary U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Delegation of Immigration Authority Section 287(g), and the participating-agencies spreadsheet dated Oct. 14, 2026. ice.gov
- Secondary American Immigration Council, What’s in the Big Beautiful Bill? Immigration and Border Security Unpacked. americanimmigrationcouncil.org
- Secondary TRAC (Syracuse University), Immigration Quick Facts: 65,765 people in ICE detention on July 11, 2026; 70.6% with no criminal conviction. tracreports.org
- Secondary ABC News, ICE says over 350,000 individuals removed so far in fiscal year 2026. abcnews.com
- Primary U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detainee Death Reporting (deaths listed by fiscal year). ice.gov
- Secondary NBC News, Texas DA investigating ICE vehicle hitting man; could lead to aggravated assault charge (Oct. 2026). nbcnews.com
- Secondary PBS NewsHour / Associated Press, ICE officer shoots a man while making an arrest in New York, officials say. pbs.org
- Secondary Associated Press via KSAT, Appeals court judges question the government about Trump’s DC National Guard deployment (Oct. 14, 2026). ksat.com
- Secondary South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Governor extends South Dakota National Guard’s ICE deployment (Oct. 5, 2026). sdpb.org
- Secondary Democracy Now!, headline on ProPublica’s count: 500+ U.S. citizens have been detained by ICE (Oct. 7, 2026). democracynow.org
- Primary The Heritage Foundation, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise (Project 2025), full text. Page numbers in this series are the book’s printed page numbers. static.heritage.org
- Secondary American Immigration Lawyers Association, DHS rescinds guidelines for enforcement actions in or near protected areas (Jan. 2025). aila.org
Investigative methodology: this series was written by a person from the documents cited above. Bill language is quoted from the legislature’s own copies. In Part 1, Mississippi’s 287(g) counts were tallied row by row from ICE’s participating-agencies spreadsheet dated Oct. 14, 2026 (rows where the state is Mississippi), and custody deaths were counted from ICE’s death-reporting page as updated Sept. 23, 2026. Where Project 2025 is compared with what has happened since, the comparison shows that the two line up; it does not show that the book caused any particular law.
Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk
Verified NewsroomPrimary-sourced investigative intelligence on civil rights, voting rights, federal policy, and consumer protection. Sourced from primary legal filings, government statistics, and direct field reporting.