Governor defends Oklahoma's controversial immigration law amid federal pushback

Publish date: 2024-09-02

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is defending a state illegal immigration ban as the federal government looks to poke holes in the argument.

What the Department of Justice is calling unconstitutional, and an interference with immigration and foreign relations, is also a policy the governor strongly supports.

But even before the state's immigration law becomes effective on July 1, it could be blocked by the federal government.

Newsflash, you can't come into our country illegally," Stitt said. "Now you have the federal government suing the state of Oklahoma that says don't enforce the law, because that's all the bill basically says."

The law doesn't call for deportation from the country, but rather the state. It creates misdemeanor and felony offenses if someone is in the U.S. illegally and commits a crime in Oklahoma.

Metro law enforcement leaders are among the critics with concerns about how to enforce the law without racially profiling community members.

Stitt has the state legislature and Attorney General Gentner Drummond on his side.

We're going to be a law and order state, we're not a sanctuary state, and like all the law enforcement have said, they're not rounding anybody up," Stitt said.

Aside from the law, the governor set up a task force to address how immigration bolsters the economy, and come up with a way to set up state distributed workforce permits.

"If the feds are not going to do it and they're not going to get involved and do this the right way, we know there are great, hard-working Oklahomans that just can't get through the system. So how do we step into that gap and fill that?" he said.

The AG said he is prepared to fight any lawsuit from the federal government or outside group when it comes to the immigration law.

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