Oklahoma considers Texas-style immigration measure
March 21 (UPI) -- Oklahoma Republican House Speaker Charles McCall has introduced immigration legislation patterned after a law pending in Texas, which is among the strictest in the nation.
"The failed policies of the Biden administration have turned every state into a border state," McCall said in a statement announcing the legislation.
"Oklahoma is a law and order state, and should be the last place illegal immigrants want to settle when they cross over the border. For those reasons, and in light of recent court rulings regarding Senate Bill 4 out of Texas, I am immediately introducing legislation to secure the borders of Oklahoma in the same fashion as our neighbors to the south.
"Oklahoma will stand ready to defend its borders from all who would enter our country illegally."
Texas S.B. 4 makes it illegal to cross into the state from another country anywhere other than at a legal port of entry, a crime that would be punishable by jail time, a deportation order from a state court judge or both.
It would apply not to migrants in Texas cities hundreds of miles away from the border who entered the country without authorization as long as two years prior.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, who has been at the center of the country's debate over immigration and border policy, has said the law is a necessary response to a record number of border crossings that at times have overwhelmed South Texas towns with hundreds of new migrants a day -- and to what they say is the federal government's failure to enforce the nation's existing border security laws.
Trying to step up immigration enforcement, Texas has been at odds with federal officials. The state's military seized a 50-acre public park in Eagle Pass, a common migrant crossing spot along the U.S. Mexico line, and locked out U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Court challenges and back and forth over S.B. 4 have led to confusion over what the current law is and how authorities are supposed to patrol the border.
Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe said he is determined to hear directly from Abbott about what was going on with the law. "I'm on my way to his office right now," he told The New York Times on Wednesday.
