On Aug. 7, 2019, seven poultry plants in central Mississippi, some of the biggest employers in the region, were raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Authorities arrested 680 workers, more than half from plants right in Morton. As President-elect Donald Trump gets ready to serve a second term, he and his advisers have said workplace raids will be restarted as part of their promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in history. The Biden administration had stopped workplace raids , although it continued removing immigrants with targeted operations. This promise has left people in the area anxious about the deep impact new workplace raids could have on the community's psyche and the economy. "What will happen if all our people get deported?" asks Lorena Quiroz, the executive director of the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity , an organization that advocates for immigrant rights in Mississippi. She wonders whether Americans understand the extent to which the slaughtering and packaging of poultry depends on the undocumented workforce. Quiroz says that since the presidential election in November, she has received calls from people worried about potential new workplace raids in the area. "Our whole focus has been this: preparing, getting ready, making sure that we have resources," she emphasizes. Trump's team says they'll first go after migrants with criminal records and final orders of deportation . Tom Homan, Trump's incoming border czar, has suggested people who have been ordered to leave the country but don't, become fugitives. During the raids in 2019, most of the migrants picked up by ICE didn't have a record. Out of the nearly 700 people detained, about 230 were removed from the country under prior removal orders and other causes, according to the Mississippi Center for Justice . Local immigration activists told NPR that agents also briefly detained people with work permits. Workplace raids have also hurt small businesses in Morton. Todd Hensley, who owns the thrift store in downtown Morton, says if unauthorized immigrants were deported again, he'd lose 50 percent of his business. "I'm gonna be aggravated because everyone would be gone, and I'm not gonna make any money," Hensley says. "I might close down if they leave — it'd be that serious." El Pueblo, a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance to immigrants, is trying to help to ease the fears. "We can't predict the future, but we can at least help people prepare," says Executive Director Mike Oropeza. Oropeza's group, which has community centers in towns affected by the 2019 raids, is helping parents complete guardianship and power of attorney paperwork for their kids in case they are deported.

The National Football League, the Justice Department, the FBI and other agencies will call on Congress on Tuesday to expand U.S. government authority to detect and destroy drones that could pose security threats over stadiums and other locations, Reuters reports. Congress has debated for years expanding authority amid growing safety concerns. "The time to act to keep fans safe is now," NFL security chief Cathy Lanier will tell a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Tuesday. According to Lanier's written testimony, rogue drone flights into the restricted air space above stadiums during NFL games rose to 2,845 in 2023 from 2,537 in 2022. Drone flights are prohibited up to 3,000 feet (914 m) before major U.S. sporting events in a three-mile radius of stadiums. The White House and sports leagues since 2022 have been pushing for expanded authority to detect threatening drones, with the NFL, Major League Baseball and other leagues warning previously that without expanded authority, airports and sporting events "are at substantial risk from malicious and unauthorized (drone) operation." Congress in 2018 expanded the power of the Justice Department and Homeland Security to disable or destroy threatening drones, but officials say they need new authority. Legislation would expand federal coverage for airports and critical infrastructure like power plants, oil refineries or chemical facilities and high-risk prisoner transports. It would also allow use of expanded counter-drone authorities by state and local law enforcement. Owners or operators of airports or critical infrastructure could also use federally vetted drone-detection capabilities. "Gaps in legal authorities leave sensitive federal facilities, such as CIA headquarters, vulnerable to both intelligence collection by foreign states and physical attacks by hostile actors," said joint written testimony from the FBI and Justice Department. "We also need to allow critical infrastructure operators to take steps to protect their own facilities and assets." DHS said in written testimony that in a recent six-week period there were more than 6,900 drone flights within close proximity of the Southwest border, saying "the use of drones for illicit cross border activity is not only widespread, but highly organized."

A Republican state representative thinks Missouri should follow the example set by the GOP nationally and allow people convicted of felonies to be candidates for office, Missouri Independent reports. State Rep. Michael Davis of Belton prefiled a bill for the 2025 legislative session that he has named the “ Donald J. Trump Election Qualification Act. ” The bill would repeal the state’s ban on felons seeking office and allow it “if otherwise qualified.” “I think it’ll draw some attention, which so far it has,” Davis said in an interview with The Independent. Davis, who will be starting his third term in the House in January, said he has tried to lift the restriction, first enacted in 2015 , in the past. A bill he filed two years ago to remove the barrier to office was referred to a committee but didn’t receive a hearing. Talking with people opposed to his bill can be awkward, he said. “Having conversations now, when I bring up the topic, a lot of them are squeamish about the idea of having felons in office, but then, if they’re Republican, I remind them that they probably voted for one,” Davis said. Trump was convicted May 30 in New York on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Sentencing was postponed in September until after the election and postponed again, this time indefinitely , after he won.  Because Missouri law cannot modify the qualifications for federal office, people with felony convictions can file for U.S. Senate and House of Representatives seats but not for state or local office. Putting Trump’s name in the bill is a way of reminding his colleagues of that difference, Davis said. “A lot of people don’t don’t think about the fact that Donald Trump, if he met all the other requirements, if he was a Missouri resident, he could not run for state representative or state Senate,” Davis said. “He would be precluded from running for these offices, but was able to be re-elected president of the United States. So I think that at least causes people to start thinking about the issue a little more than they might otherwise.” The state law was upheld in June in a Missouri Supreme Court decision barring a candidate with a felony conviction from running for county commission. In a St. Charles County legislative race this year, a judge dismissed a challenge based on the law because the candidate seeking to have an opponent removed from the ballot could not provide proof of a guilty plea. Voters can distinguish between prior acts that disqualify someone from a position of trust and those that do not, Davis said. “If it’s someone who has a felony conviction that would be unappealing to most voters, they will not elect that individual,” Davis said. “But someone who maybe made some sort of financial indiscretion or had drug possession or some of the smaller crimes that are still felony convictions, I think the public is able to discern that, and they did that with the president.”