Thread: Oklahoma still divided on state immigrant law

Oklahoma still divided on state immigrant law
BY BILL BOWDEN

Posted on Sunday, February 15, 2009

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TULSA - During the 14 months after Oklahoma toughened its stance on illegal immigration, 2,441 illegal aliens in the state were turned over to federal authorities for possible deportation.

That's a fraction of the number of Hispanics who fled the state just before the law went into effect on Nov. 1, 2007, some say, with anecdotal estimates saying there was an exodus of 25,000 from Tulsa alone.

Proponents say the law has caused a drop in the crime rate by taking career criminals off the street.

A Hispanic pastor called it "a diplomatic way to do ethnic cleansing."

Sheriff Stanley Glanz of Tulsa County said, "It hasn't really affected my office that much," instead crediting federal immigration training and authority his deputies received.

Widely considered the toughest anti-illegal immigration law in America, Oklahoma's House Bill 1804 of 2007 served as the model for a similar bill that state Rep. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, filed in the Arkansas House of Representatives on Jan. 13. Arkansas House Bill 1093 has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. Both the Oklahoma and Arkansas bills are titled the "Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act."

"I hear that it's working rather well," Sample said of Oklahoma HB1804, which was introduced by Oklahoma Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore. "The illegals don't like it at all, and some businesses have taken a hit on it, but the majority of citizens like it."

The Arkansas proposal would prevent illegal aliens from working in the state or getting in-state tuition, scholarships or financial aid at Arkansas colleges. It would require verification of legal residence in the United States to receive identification cards and create an Arkansas State Police unit to investigate illegal immigration. Arkansas HB1093 would also make it unlawful for people to "conceal, harbor ... shelter from detection" or "transport" an illegal alien if they show "reckless disregard" or commit the act while knowing the person is in the country illegally. The charge would be a Class D felony, punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement won't say how many of the 2,441 aliens arrested in Oklahoma were deported. The agency keeps statistics by "area of responsibility," and Tulsa falls under the Dallas area, which includes all 77 counties in Oklahoma and 128 counties in north Texas. For that region in 2008, immigration authorities deported 16,370 people, including 4,600 "criminal aliens," said Carl Rusnok, an agency spokesman in Dallas. In 2008, Tulsa County turned 2,016 illegal immigrants over to the agency for immigration proceedings.

Sheriff Glanz said the crime rate in his county dropped by 6 percent last year, and auto theft was down 35 percent. He said he believes the reason is primarily because of Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act. Through that section, Glanz had 32 of his officers trained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement so they could act as immigration agents in the field. Tulsa is the only city in Oklahoma with the federally trained officers.

In Arkansas, four law enforcement agencies have officers trained through Section 287(g), and they are all in Northwest Arkansas - at the police departments in Springdale and Rogers and the sheriff's offices in Benton and Washington counties.

If all Arkansas cities would participate in the 287(g) program, the state might not need a new immigration law, Sample said.

Advocates for Hispanics argue that Glanz sent officers for the training because he knew Oklahoma HB1804 would be passed. Glanz said the timing was a coincidence.

He said he started checking into the 287(g) training in 2001, and after approval, his first immigration trained officers hit the streets in September 2007, two months before the law went into effect. Glanz said he didn't have the exact figures, but his department made almost no arrests pertaining to illegal immigration the year before it began participating in the 287(g) program.

Since HB1804 went into effect on Nov. 1, 2007, Glanz acknowledges that Tulsa has become a ground zero in the war on illegal aliens. The city is seen as a laboratory for law enforcement as it pertains to illegal aliens, and states considering similar legislation - such as Arkansas - are watching closely.

"Things are going really well," Glanz said. "We have sent for immigration hearings close to 2,400 people, most of whom have a criminal background; most had criminal warrants out for their arrest. ... I would encourage any law enforcement agency to enforce the illegal immigration laws because of the illegal activity that surrounds an illegal community, the illegal immigration community."

"Tulsa County took the lead," said Sgt. Shannon Clark of the sheriff's office. "We wanted to step on all the land mines in the school of hard knocks."

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BILLS

Clark said two things changed with enactment of Oklahoma's bill: Police officers throughout that the state are required to ask about legal residence when a person is arrested, and no bond will be set after the arrest of someone without residency or citizenship documents until that person has a hearing.

Before HB1804, Clark said, repeat offenders would leave jail on bond and not show up for court. In many cases, they would be arrested again in Tulsa for other offenses.

When people are arrested in Oklahoma but their cases later are dismissed, immigration authorities still can put a "detainer" on them if they can't prove that they are legally in the United States. Such people then would be sent to the Tulsa County jail - the only Immigration and Customs Enforcement-approved detainment facility in the state. There, a national fingerprint identification system is used to determine if they are citizens, legal residents or visiting on work, student or other visas. If that can't be determined, they are held at the jail pending processing by the immigration office in Oklahoma City.

Clark said illegal aliens who commit crimes are often deported by the federal government. That has reduced the recidivism rate at the Tulsa County jail. Without repeat offenders, the jail population has decreased by 100 to 150 inmates below the levels before HB1804 was enacted, even though more inmates are being held in the jail awaiting immigration hearings, Clark said. On Wednesday, the jail had 1,494 inmates. It has a capacity of 1,714.

Last year, 30,309 people were arrested in Tulsa County. Of that number, 1,951 were detained as illegal aliens, and some of them remain in the Tulsa County jail. Ninety-one percent of the aliens processed through Tulsa County last year were from Mexico.

According to the Tulsa County sheriff's office, in 2008, two aliens were arrested on murder charges, eight robbery, 39 firearms, 76 assault and battery, and 235 on drug counts. The remainder were arrested on lesser charges.

"They're treated a lot better here than they are in their home countries," Glanz said of the 800,000-square-foot Tulsa County jail, which opened in 1998. "Most of them get good medical care, the best that money can buy, while they're in our facility."

Sample, the Hot Springs representative, said the bill he drafted for Arkansas would require police officers statewide to inquire about citizenship, but it doesn't keep illegal aliens from being able to bond out of jail. His HB1093 states that for bond purposes "it is a rebuttable presumption" that "a foreign national who has not been lawfully admitted to the United States is at risk of flight," but Sample said it doesn't state that police should jail them until they have a hearing before a judge.

"That might be something we want to change," said Sample. "I would think that law enforcement people would love that part of it."

The wording of the bond section of the Arkansas bill, however, is identical to the corresponding section of the Oklahoma law.

District judges in Tulsa County interpreted that section of the law to mean they could hold aliens without bond, Clark of the sheriff's office said, but he didn't think judges in all 77 Oklahoma counties had reached the same conclusion.

Sheriff Glanz said only three arrests have been made statewide specifically under HB1804. All of those arrests were made by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, and none of them was in Tulsa County. Clark noted that arrests under the law pertain more to people aiding and abetting illegal aliens than to the aliens themselves.

"All this did was adopt the Immigration and Naturalization Act to a state law so we could charge you on a state level instead of federally," Clark said. "Federal law requires that you have to have your documents with you at all times and that you have to present them if a law enforcement officer asks for them."

IMMIGRANTS RETURNING?

Sensing that HB1804 wasn't the doomsday law it had been made out to be, Hispanics who fled the state when the law went into effect have been returning to Tulsa, several people said.

"A lot of people left, but they're coming back," said Damien Perez, who manages Los Americas Supermercado, a supermarket in east Tulsa. "They're asking people, and they hear nothing has changed, that it's no big deal."

The Rev. Miguel Rivera, though, doesn't believe it.

Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders in Washington, D.C., said no more than 3 percent of those who fled Tulsa have returned.

"The law is one of the worst anti-undocumented immigrant laws in the United States," he said. "It's not a matter that they're coming back. These are primarily new immigrants coming to the city. There is no such truth that people who left the city are coming back."

The Rev. Jose Alfonso of the largest Hispanic church in Tulsa, Iglesia Piedra Angular, said a few have returned, but that's because a federal judge had imposed an injunction on the part of HB1804 that would have punished people who knowingly employ illegal aliens. If the injunction is lifted, more Hispanics will leave Tulsa, he said.

Alfonso said the size of his congregation dropped by 12 percent to 15 percent in the months just before the bill was enacted. None of his church members has returned.

"I don't think, honestly, that many people have come back," he said. "It was devastating for a pastor to see that amount of people leaving the church."

Alfonso said he believed many Hispanics left Tulsa for California, where they previously lived. He said he had heard of none moving to Arkansas.

His church has regained about 5 percent of that loss, up to a total of 450 members, but the increase was due to new people moving to the area.

Alfonso, who is Cuban but grew up in Puerto Rico, said HB1804 was "a diplomatic way to do ethnic cleansing."

"It was like a hunting of witches," he said. "It was horrible."

The Rev. Victor Orta of El Pueblo de Dios, a Baptist church in Tulsa, said his congregation dwindled by 10 percent in late 2007. But it has regained that loss plus another 10 percent to reach 127. He also hasn't had anyone return to his congregation.

Orta said the Hispanic population in Tulsa has had a "quiet rise" over the past few months as people come to the area in search of jobs. But they are new immigrants, he said.

"Back in their home country, really, there's nothing for them," he said. "The economy is bad."

Alfonso said one man from his congregation was stopped for speeding. The man called his minister from a cell phone at the scene. Alfonso arrived and begged the deputy to let the man go instead of arresting him, which would have meant deportation. The deputy obliged.

"Here, Tulsa is such a religious city," Alfonso said. "When they see a pastor is involved, they try to go more easy on the person. He was not a criminal. His father is a pastor in Mexico, people who have dedicated themselves to the ministry for years. He was coming to the church."

Both Alfonso and Orta said they are against illegal immigration, but they believe it's a federal issue, not for state governments to police.

"I believe if people are coming to this country, they need to go through the proper channels," Alfonso said.

"If you're not doing anything that would draw law enforcement's attention," Clark said, "you don't have anything to worry about. We are strictly looking for criminals, that's it. If you're not doing any crime, don't worry."

Perez agreed.

"For people who work and lead a normal life, it's all right," he said.

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GO Oklahoma and Arkansas! Outstanding! All states should follow their lead and help our nation solve this problem.

To the pro-immigration groups, start looking for a new job.

To the churches, move to the countries where these illegal aliens are coming from and help them improve their countries, since you certainly aren't doing anything to improve ours. I can't believe we still let you operate on tax-exempt charitable contributions.

If you're not doing anything that would draw law enforcement's attention," Clark said, "you don't have anything to worry about. We are strictly looking for criminals, that's it. If you're not doing any crime, don't worry."

Again I read this statement and can not believe it If they are here illegally they are criminals it can not be any more plain than that. And talking of plain look at the plain facts on the decline of crime when they are gone. I did not make this up I am just writing the facts as reported by the cities.

A Hispanic pastor called it "a diplomatic way to do ethnic cleansing."

He can call it anything he wants to,but just remenber they broke laws to get here and many break laws to work here and many again break laws to gain credit or other identification to gain access to various programs


Go Oklahoma and Arkansas we all stand behind you and your work

ethnic cleansing I always thought of as DECREASING THE POPULATION OF A PARTICULAR RACE!

Not enforcing ones immigration policies and laws

Exactly! Sending illegal aliens home to their nation of citizenship is not ethnic cleansing. The very idea of it insults those who have actually been the victims of ethnic cleansing and is a disgraceful outrageous statement by these stupid air-headed pro-immigration fanatics.