Immigration in Jackson and central Mississippi
Jackson's own immigrant population is small by the numbers. Census Bureau estimates put the city near 147,000 residents, with about 2 percent born outside the United States and about 2 percent Hispanic or Latino. The immigrant community the Jackson office serves is spread across the metro and the poultry and manufacturing towns of central Mississippi, the same towns, including Morton, Carthage and Canton, where ICE carried out large worksite raids in August 2019. Those families, and the employers who hire them, are still working through the consequences.
Mississippi has no immigration court and no USCIS field office, so every Jackson case travels. Non-detained removal cases from Jackson and southern Mississippi are heard at the New Orleans Immigration Court on Canal Street; the Memphis Immigration Court covers Mississippi north of Jackson. Green card and naturalization interviews are at the USCIS New Orleans Field Office on Poydras Street, although fingerprints are taken locally at the Jackson Application Support Center on West Capitol Street. ICE's New Orleans field office has jurisdiction over Mississippi and lists no sub-office in the state. People arrested in central Mississippi are usually held at the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez or at facilities in Louisiana such as Jena, Monroe and Pine Prairie, where their cases are heard at the LaSalle or Oakdale detained courts. The Mexican consulate for Mississippi is in New Orleans.
What the Jackson office does
Distance is the practical problem in a Mississippi case. A master calendar hearing in New Orleans is a full day away, a detained relative in Natchez or Jena is harder still to reach, and the nearest USCIS interview room is in another state. Our Jackson office at 5888 Ridgewood Rd, Suite E, prepares the filings here, appears at the New Orleans, Memphis and LaSalle courts, and attends USCIS interviews in New Orleans with clients. Our Ciudad Juárez office prepares Mexican clients for their consular interviews.
The office handles family petitions and adjustment of status, I-601A and I-601 waivers, naturalization, asylum, U visas for crime victims, bond hearings for people detained at Adams County and in Louisiana, removal defense, and I-9 audits and worksite enforcement defense for Mississippi employers. Mississippi National Guard members training at Camp Shelby and their families can also use parole in place and naturalization through service. Consultations are available in Spanish. Call (601) 500-7422.