Oklahoma's Republican-led legislature is in lockstep with President Donald Trump’s rollout of mass deportation policies. A week before the start of the Legislative session, state lawmakers have filed bills making the deportation of unauthorized immigrants in Oklahoma more efficient.
From proof-of-citizenship requirements for schools and employers to expanding anti-sanctuary city prohibitions and more, Republican lawmakers are streamlining Trump’s immigration policies in Oklahoma by making pariahs out of those in the country without federal permission.
Meanwhile, one Democratic senator is refiling — for the third time — a bill granting driver’s license eligibility to individuals who can prove they’ve paid state taxes for a certain number of years, regardless of their immigration status.
No one immigration bill filed by Republican lawmakers this year changes the landscape of immigration enforcement in Oklahoma on its own. Together, however, measures submitted by both chambers work together to fund, organize and carry out mass deportations across the state.
Some bills include House Bills 1165 by Rep. Gabe Woolley, R–Broken Arrow, and 1671 by Rep. Josh Cantrell. R–Kingston. They mimic the proposed Oklahoma State Department of Education administrative rule change to count unauthorized migrants interacting with the state's public schools.
The proposed rules change is an effort led by Ryan Walters, the state superintendent of public instruction, who has actively committed to carrying out Trump’s immigration agenda. They are pending a vote of approval by the state education board, which will likely take place Tuesday.
Also by Woolley, House Bill 1962 requires Oklahoma employers to verify their workers' citizenship status, establishing fines of up to $500 per offense for non-compliance.
Continuing along the vein of accounting for unauthorized migrants in Oklahoma, Senate Bill 489 by Sen. Shane Jett, R–Shawnee, proposes expanding the prohibition of ‘sanctuary city’ policies to any and all political subdivisions in the state.
The measure requires places like schools, libraries, municipal community centers and many more political entities to cooperate with local, state and federal government officials carrying out immigration enforcement, per the text.
Accounting for migrants at work and school is just one part of the Trump-inspired immigration platform taking shape in Oklahoma this legislative session. Here are the bills filed this session that, if collectively passed, could carve out avenues to round up, deport or otherwise reduce the number of unauthorized migrants in Oklahoma:
- Senate Bill 872 by Sen. Lisa Standridge, R–Norman – Deputizes county sheriff's departments to conduct immigration enforcement in collaboration with federal authorities.
- Senate Bill 865 by Sen. Casey Murdock, R-Felt – Creates the ‘Public Safety and Immigration Enforcement Act,’ which directs the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services to seek federal grants for the creation and implementation of a technology shared by local, state and federal law enforcement to track unauthorized migrants across the state’s correctional system.
- House Bill 1307 by Rep. Justin Humphrey, R–Lane – Proposes an automatic death penalty for unauthorized migrants convicted of first-degree murder; House Bill 1320, also by Humphrey, proposes a similar policy for people found guilty of trafficking minors.
- House Bill 1932 by Rep. Jonathan Wilk, R– Goldsby– Creates the ‘Donald J. Trump Mass Deportation Revolving Fund’ to use Oklahomans’ tax dollars to pay for immigration enforcement across the state.
The measures follow a series of executive orders and proclamations President Trump made on his first day in office, which have stirred the political will to exclude unauthorized migrants from various aspects of public life in Oklahoma and beyond.
Oklahoma City Democrat Sen. Michael Brooks is proposing a bill – Senate Bill 399 – allowing Oklahomans without legal immigration status – but with a long history of paying state taxes – to get a state-issued driver’s license.
It’s Brooks' third time filing the measure, which has failed overwhelmingly over the last two years.
Another measure, by Edmond Republican Preston Stinson, would establish a process for medical professionals trained by international medical programs to attain full or partial licensure to practice in Oklahoma. The measure is called House Bill 2050.
Still, Latinos, the second-largest demographic in the state with over 500,000 people, are represented by a Latino legislative caucus of three in a legislature of 149 members.
That means there is little legislative recourse to protect the group from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, if they were to happen, or from local and state-level immigration enforcement.
And last year’s House Bill 4156, which criminalizes people in the state without federal permission broadly, could soon take effect as the Department of Justice reconsiders its Biden-era lawsuit against the state over the measure.
