Mississippi Joins Florida in Folding on Immigration Enforcement

Mississippi, which perennially ranks among the poorest and least educated states in the union, looked a bit like Florida last week when it caved on an immigration bill.

The Mississippi House passed an immigration enforcement bill, but it failed to get a committee hearing in the Senate. An E-Verify employment-screening bill suffered a similar fate between the two houses in Tallahassee last year.

Mississippi's Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act of 2012 would have authorized all police agencies to assist federal agencies in enforcing immigration law, including requiring public schools to determine the status of enrolling students and prohibiting illegal aliens from entering into business transactions with government entities.

The bill, which would affect some 45,000 illegals in the Magnolia state, was roundly condemned by church leaders there as an abomination. One Catholic priest went so far as to claim it would "impinge on religious freedom."

The Mississippi and Florida legislatures, both controlled by Republicans, have genuflected to the ersatz ecclesiastical appeals, which received resounding amens from politically connected business groups with a vested interest in maintaining a quasi-slave labor pool.

But unlike Florida, lawmakers in Jackson at least had the fortitude to pass an E-Verify requirement on employers.

Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina have all enacted private-sector E-Verify laws in the past two years.