On 03/17/08, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, signed SB 2988 into law. The law requires all employers to use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility status of their employees. It also allows any law enforcement agency to arrest unauthorized workers, who will then face felony charges, no access to bail, and jail time from one to five years and fines from $1,000 to $10,000. Their employers, on the other hand, may become ineligible for public contracts for up to 3 years and/or lose their business permit for up to 1 year.

While Governor Haley Barbour signed the bill, even he noted that "the federal government itself has said E-Verify is not a reliable system" and emphasized that small employers are exempt until 2011.