Thread: Oklahoma House to vote on strict illegal immigration bill

Thursday, March 01, 2007


Oklahoma House to vote on strict illegal immigration bill
Joshua Pantesco at 8:36 AM ET



[JURIST] An Oklahoma State House of Representatives committee approved a strict immigration bill on Wednesday for a full vote in the Oklahoma House.

The Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007 [HB 1804 text, DOC] seeks to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining state identification, and would require all state and local agencies to verify citizenship status of applicants before authorizing benefits.

The bill would also require public employers to enter job applicants into an electronic immigration database to verify legal status, and would repeal a 2003 law that permits illegal immigrants to attend state colleges at in-state tuition levels. The proposed bill states in part:

The State of Oklahoma finds that illegal immigration is causing economic hardship and lawlessness in this state and that illegal immigration is encouraged by public agencies within this state that provide public benefits without verifying immigration status.

The State of Oklahoma further finds that illegal immigrants have been harbored and sheltered in this state and encouraged to reside in this state through the issuance of identification cards that are issued without verifying immigration status, and that these practices impede and obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law, undermine the security of our borders, and impermissibly restrict the privileges and immunities of the citizens of Oklahoma.

Therefore, the people of the State of Oklahoma declare that it is a compelling public interest of this state to discourage illegal immigration by requiring all agencies within this state to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

The bill, considered one of the toughest illegal immigration [JURIST news archive] measures in the country, is expected to pass easily in the state House of Representatives. The proposal would also have to be passed in the state Senate before going to the governor for approval.

The Oklahoma legislature is also now considering the Oklahoma English Language Act [HB 1423 text, DOC], which would require all official business of the state to be conducted in English, with exceptions. AP has more.


http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2 ... strict.php

Way to go Oklahoma! I knew they were going to do something about it, just didnt think it would be so early in the year.

Related thread:
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... t=oklahoma

Oklahoma measure would get tough on illegal immigrants
By Miguel Bustillo, Times Staff Writer
6:11 PM PDT, April 2, 2007


Frustrated with the federal government's response to illegal immigration, Oklahoma is poised to become the next state to pass a law targeting illegal immigrants and the businesses that employ them.

A measure moving through the Legislature would deny welfare benefits, in-state college tuition rates and numerous state subsidies to those in the country illegally. It also would empower police to detain illegal immigrants and require businesses that do work for the state to prove that their employees are legally in the country.

The legislation, written with help from a Washington, D.C., legal organization that opposes illegal immigration, comes after passage of similar laws last year in Colorado and Georgia. Like legislators in those states, the leader of the Oklahoma effort said he was tired of waiting for Washington politicians to fix a problem that costs his state millions of dollars a year.

"Illegal aliens will not come here if there are no jobs waiting for them. They will not come if there are no taxpayer subsidies. And they certainly won't come if they know they will be physically detained until they are deported," said the bill's author, Republican state Rep. Randy Terrill. "Oklahoma is obviously not the wealthiest state in the union. We can't afford to become a welfare state for the rest of the world."

The legislation passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives 88-9 last month, despite opposition from religious groups and some of the state's most powerful business lobbyists. One lawmaker who spoke most passionately against it, Republican Rep. Shane Jett, who is married to a Brazilian immigrant, abstained from the vote. The bill is scheduled for a vote Tuesday in a state Senate committee; if approved there, it would advance to the Senate floor.

"The business community is very concerned about the bill as it stands right now, said Mike Seney, a senior vice president with the state chamber of commerce, which is alarmed by the legislation's employer sanctions. "This bill needs work."

Unlike hard-line immigration legislation in Texas, which is stalled in committee, Democrats and Republicans said the Oklahoma legislation has the momentum to reach the desk of Democratic Gov. Brad Henry.

Henry ran television ads portraying himself as tough on illegal immigration during his re-election campaign last year but has yet to take a position on the measure.

Supporters, and even some detractors, said the bill might be too popular for him to reject.

"I've never seen an issue like this in my nine years here, where (opponents) want to talk to you about it but don't want anyone to know," said state Sen. Kenneth Corn, a Democrat who is a co-sponsor of the legislation. "The sheer number of phone calls being received by members is just huge. This is a main street issue at the coffee shop."

While Oklahoma's foreign-born population is still estimated at less than 5 percent of its 3.5 million total, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, it has doubled over the past decade with an influx of legal and illegal Hispanic immigrants.

Lawmakers said internal tracking polls have shown immigration jumping into a top concern for many Oklahoma voters, who worry that their tax dollars are being used to help foreigners who are in the state illegally.

Terrill's legislation was being tweaked last week to win more votes in the state Senate. But as currently written, the bill would deny numerous services to those who could not show they were in the country legally. It also would require proof of citizenship or legal residence to obtain a driver's license or any other form of state ID.

The bill would make it a state crime to harbor an illegal immigrant and would empower state patrolmen and other police to detain anyone they found to be in the country illegally until they could be deported.

It would require all local and state agencies, and contractors who do business with them, to verify that their employees are in the country legally. And it would allow laid-off workers to file an unfair labor practices claim seeking lost wages if their former employer hired illegal immigrants.

Catholic Charities, a group that assists individuals regardless of their immigration status, is concerned that the legislation would make it a crime for aid workers to take battered women to shelters. It wants lawmakers to allow nonprofits to harbor illegal immigrants for humanitarian reasons.

The group is also worried that denying in-state tuition rates to residents who cannot prove they are in the country legally would create social problems in Oklahoma by disenfranchising a generation of youngsters who followed their parents into the country.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... ?track=rss