JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is ordering state agencies not to provide public benefits to immigrants who recently received deferred deportation status from the federal government.
    
Republican Bryant issued an executive order Thursday, hours before a GOP-led state House committee was to meet about immigration issues.
   
Bryant has campaigned for years on tightening immigration enforcement.
   
He says his order "does not change or modify Mississippi law," which already bans state agencies from providing unemployment payments, food stamps or other benefits to people who are in the United States illegally.
   
President Barack Obama, a Democrat, recently issued an executive order that defers deportation for immigrants who are 30 or younger and entered the U.S. before they were 16.
   
It was not immediately clear how many people in Mississippi applied for deferred status.