Lawmakers square off over state's new immigration law

Transcript Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The principal author of the state's new immigration law and one of the measure's chief critics debated the new law Thursday during a meeting of the state's political scientists.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Oklahoma Political Science Association, state Reps. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, and Richard Morrissette, D-Oklahoma City, spent the better part of Thursday afternoon arguing the pros and cons of House Bill 1804 -- the state's new immigration bill.

The event, billed as a roundtable discussion, also included Linda Allegro, a professor from the University of Tulsa, and Carol Helm, a representative of the group Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Now.

The discussion drew a full crowd to the House of Representatives chamber and was, at times, tense.

Terrill defended his bill saying it "wasn't any big secret that the federal government had fallen down" on its responsibility to protect the nation's borders.

"Illegal immigrants are coming this way at a rate of many thousands per day," he said. "And I can assure you that not all of them are out putting roofs on your house."

Since the government has failed to act, Terrill said, "no one should be surprised that lawmakers like me should step forward."

"All you're seeing here is federalism in action," he said.

Terrill, a law school graduate, also criticized the law's opponents for using the courts to challenge the law.

"The don't like HB 1804, and they've used the court from the very beginning," he said. "So what have they done, they've taken the fight to the court, to the judiciary. They want the unaccountable judiciary to decide it. They are attempting to accomplish through the judicial process what they couldn't accomplish through the legislative process."

Morrissette disagreed.

"This bill was driven by politics," the Oklahoma City Democrat said. "Because Carl Rowe in the White House did a poll of conservative, GOP voters."

Undocumented workers, he said, are already prevented from receiving benefits by federal law and HB 1804 is nothing more than a duplication of existing federal statutes.

"All this is already illegal. This is a terrible state issue. The state doesn't have the authority to pass citizenship statutes. You have to go through a federal process to become a U.S. citizen, it's cumbersome, weary and time-consuming."

The country, Morrissette said, "is big enough to follow the law. If you work, pay taxes and go by the rules, then you should be given a reasonable chance to become a U.S. citizen."

Responding to Terrill's complaints of opposition groups filing suit over the bill, Morrissette said he hoped the courts "would do something" about the bill. "I suspect they will. I suspect the federal court will take some action."

Echoing Terrill, Carol Helm, a representative of Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Now, said Oklahoma was facing an "invasion" by illegal aliens.

"Our group is non-partisan," she said. "The thing that brings us together is one issue: the illegal alien invasion."

The states, she said, have every right to enforce immigration laws.

"Why are these laws not being enforced? There are many, many laws on the books that are being overlooked."

The forum's fourth speaker, University of Tulsa professor Linda Allegro, said the bill has generated many unanswered questions.

"We don't have all the answers yet. We don't know if it will be more costly to enforce this law."

Allegro said other issues have been absent from the debate over the new law.

"We have to look at how the global economy is reshaping labor availability," she said. "The North American Free Trade Agreement has created a paradox, a borderless movement of goods, services and capital and, at the same time, more limited immigration."

And HB 1804 had made things worse by creating "racial divisions."

"It's contributed to more tension between whites and Hispanics; where the former are viewed as racists and the later as criminal," she said.

The Oklahoma Political Science Association annual conference continues through today at the State Capitol building.

M. Scott Carter 366-3545 scarter@normantranscript.com