After nearly 600 suspected illegal immigrants were detained in a raid at Howard Industries in Laurel, some may be wondering who's keeping track?

Well, state Rep. Greg Snowden says the law now requires employers to hire legal U.S. citizens and then verify them electronically through an employment verification program called the E-Verify system. And he says either Howard Industries didn't E-verify those employees or there's a huge glitch in the electronic system.

"Either they're lying about E-verify or we have a really big problem," said Snowden. "Because if E-verify doesn't work, then I don't know. We will have to step back and look at the whole thing all over again."

Here's the catch with the E-verify law. Officials say the state would have to find violations after the July 1 effective date of the law for charges to be pressed. So there's a chance there won't be any charges filed against Howard Industries.

However, Snowden says, several years ago, Howard Industries received state funds for a job expansion to hire more employees. And if it turns out some of that money was use for illegals, Snowden says Howard Industries will have some problems.

"If in fact they have employed a vast number of illegals that's certainly not what the state money was supposed to be for," said Snowden. "It was supposed to be for expansions and job creations for Mississippians."

This raid was one of a series of recent high-profile crackdowns on illegal immigrants. Immigration laws have been a hot topic and this is also a concern for many American citizens as well.

A lot of people are wanting to know who's keeping a tab on these immigrants and who's legal and who's not? Well Census Bureau officials say it's not their department.

"We don't ask anything about citizenship. We only ask the basic questions, race, their name, their age, their gender, whether they are head of their household and basically those are the seven questions we deal with," said Willy DeBerry, area manager for the U.S. Census Bureau.

Even in light of this situation, Census Bureau officials say the department does not plan on adding questions regarding citizenship.

A recent study estimates about eight thousand illegal immigrants live in Mississippi.