Thread: Oklahoma - Most of immigration bill ruled valid

Most of immigration bill ruled valid

Posted: Feb 11, 2009 05:32 PM CST





OKLAHOMA CITY - A district court judge in Tulsa - with one exception - has upheld the constitutionality a 2007 law enacted to combat illegal immigration.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Sandy Rinehart says Judge Jefferson Sellers ruled Wednesday that the section dealing with tuition was not germane to the act and violated the single-subject rule of the Oklahoma Constitution.

Rinehart says state attorneys successfully defended the rest of the law.

She says the judge objected to the provision that changed a law that allowed children of illegal immigrants to get resident tuition. Under the change, students that get GED degrees cannot qualify.

Rinehart says Jefferson ruled that provision had nothing to do with the purpose of the bill, which is to discourage immigration.

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http://www.kfor.com/global/story.asp?s=9829913

Tulsa judge rejects immigration lawsuit
Challenge asserted that HB 1804 lacked focus on one subject
BY BILL BRAUN - Tulsa World
Published: February 12, 2009

A Tulsa County judge has upheld the constitutionality of a state law dealing with immigration, except for one aspect.



That lone exception involved a provision in the law that District Judge Jefferson Sellers determined was not germane to immigration issues.

In a ruling issued Wednesday, Sellers rejected allegations in a Tulsa County lawsuit that the law known as House Bill 1804, enacted in 2007, created a Bureau of Immigration in Oklahoma and allowed for appropriation and expenditure of public funds in violation of the state constitution.

Other than one point, Sellers rejected the lawsuit’s assertion that HB 1804 included multiple subjects in violation of a constitutional requirement that every act of the Legislature must embrace only one subject.

The stated purposes of HB 1804 "may be summarized into one common theme: to discourage illegal immigration,â€