Miss. farming town's immigrants pray bill will die

VARDAMAN, Miss. - Immigrants in this sweet potato farming town 150 miles northeast of Jackson say they're praying an Alabama-style immigration bill won't pass the state Legislature.

A small migration from the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi has brought a new population of immigrant laborers and their families here over the past two decades. Local farmers say they need the immigrant workers to keep business afloat and they can't find locals willing to do the grueling manual labor. They worry that legal workers with family members here illegally will leave the state if the bill becomes law.

Supporters of House Bill 488 say that it would ensure that all the state's workers are here legally. Gov. Phil Bryant says employees with legal workers should be unaffected by the bill.