Terrill crafting HB 1804 spinoff

by: MICK HINTON World Capitol Bureau
11/26/2007 1:27 AM

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Energized by his success in winning passage of a tough immigration law that took effect this year, state Rep. Randy Terrill is eying more reforms.

Terrill, R-Moore, said he was preparing legislation for consideration next session.

"I'm calling this bill the 'Son of 1804,' " said Terrill, the House author of House Bill 1804, the sweeping immigration reform measure passed last session.

The centerpiece of Terrill's new legislation will be making English the official language of Oklahoma, he said, although he is considering other proposals.

Terrill said he would like to find a way to stop the state from issuing birth certificates to the Oklahoma-born children of illegal immigrants. Instead, he said, the state could acknowledge the birth by sending a notice to the country where the parents are citizens.

David Blatt, the public policy director for the Community Action Project of Tulsa County, said this would fly in the face of federal law.

Terrill acknowledged that the U.S. Supreme Court has so far acknowledged children born to illegal residents to be U.S. citizens at birth.

Perhaps the state could challenge this, he said.

"I am actively evaluating whether to include something in the legislation, but there hasn't been any decision made," he said.

Blatt said Oklahoma passed "a fairly sweeping bill, and everyone is trying to figure out what the impact and unintended consequences of 1804 are."

"I think it would make sense to not go further in sending out messages that might be seen as antagonistic to the Hispanic community," he said.

Regarding the proposal to make English the official language, Terrill said he would like to see an end to such practices as multilingual driver licensing.

Terrill said his bill would make an exception for American Indian languages because of Oklahoma's unique political history with its dozens of tribes.

As for those who knowingly support illegal residents, he said he would like to provide for seizures of property, such as vehicles or houses, much as the law allows in drug cases.

This would apply to employers who do such things as transport day workers who they know are in the country illegally to work sites and would include landlords who knowingly rent to illegal residents.

Blatt said church groups and nonprofit organizations have asserted that they will continue to support their mission of protecting the health and public safety of all people.

"If you try to add more penalties to harboring, I would hope there would be resistance" from the Legislature, he said.

Questions have been raised as to whether a person transporting an illegal alien to a job could be subject to a charge of harboring under current legislation.

Terrill said that might be possible, although the intended target of the legislation was employers instead of family members or others who take an illegal immigrant to work.

Another proposal of Terrill's would compel schools to accurately report how many of their students are in this country illegally. Terrill said that taxpayers deserve to know how much this is costing.

Blatt said that would violate a Supreme Court ruling that schools must provide an education to all children.

"This would get very close to infringing upon the right of all children to an education," he said.

Terrill said the intent would not be to identify any illegal students by name, but only to get aggregate figures.

Terrill said he had not heard any complaints from supporters of HB 1804. He said those opposing his new legislation also fought HB 1804.

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