In May of last year, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry (D) signed a law making it a felony to transport or harbor illegal immigrants and establishing strict enforcement and identification policies. Now, the Columbus Dispatch reports, up to 25,000 Latinos have left Tulsa and thousands of Oklahomans have had difficulty getting drivers’ licenses or applying for social services.
State Rep. Randy Terrill (R), who wrote the law, said that it was having the desired effect, telling the newspaper, “It’s attrition through an enforcement approach to solving illegal immigration.”
But like Arizona’s voter ID law, Oklahoma’s law has mostly affected legal immigrants and U.S. citizens. Six thousand people, mostly white children, were dropped from the state’s Medicaid program because they could not prove legal residency. A coalition of businesses have filed suit against the law, saying that it is unconstitutional.
Still, the law has proved popular, and it has fierce backers, including Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Now, a group affiliated with FAIR and Numbers USA. Another group, Outraged Patriots, is drumming up support for the Oklahoma law as it is challenged by putting up this billboard:
(Wikipedia photo)
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