House Bill 1804 Passes 2-Year Mark as Law

This week marks the two year anniversary of House Bill 1804 becoming law.

Monday, November 2nd 2009, 5:11 pm

By: News 9


By Dave Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- This week marks the two year anniversary of House Bill 1804 becoming law. It was supposed to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in Oklahoma and punish anyone who hires, harbors or shelters them.

There are many stories of illegal immigrants going underground, students not going to school and Hispanic communities disappearing overnight, all because they feared arrest and possible deportation. Many wonder if Oklahoma is different after 1804 became law. It depends on who you ask.

Two years ago at the state Capitol when House Bill 1804 became law there were clashes between supporters of the measure and those opposed to it. Now, there are no crowds, no protests, but the anti-illegal and to some extent, anti-Hispanic sentiment remains.

"It's one of those things that I think has made life tougher, not just on undocumented immigrants, but on regular immigrants as well," immigration attorney Michael Brooks Jimenez said.

Jimenez says he receives dozens of calls on a weekly basis from legal citizens who were pulled over for minor traffic violations. Some of them end up being arrested instead of merely being cited.

"More and more often they're taking those people into custody and once they're booked into the jail they're having immigration detainers placed on them," Jimenez said.

But the Executive Director of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce says a lot of the initial panic in the Latino community surrounding the new law has died down.

"You go to the churches and the Spanish masses are completely full, you go to the businesses and you see a lot of Latinos buying groceries and things of that nature," said David Castillo with the Greater Oklahoma Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "I'm not seeing a big effect."

Castillo admits there are inconveniences to the new law, such as having to show a birth certificate to get a driver's license renewed. He recently got a call from a white male complaining about that measure.

"They had to jump all the hoops to get their driver's license again, so I told him to call Randy Terrill," --- said.

Representative Randy Terrill co-authored the controversial bill-turned law. He makes no apologies.

"The primary purpose of House Bill 1804 was to deter illegal immigration and to the extent that it has been enforced it has been reasonably successful," --- said.

Jimenez believes the long-term effect of this law is too early to tell.

"More than anything I think it's just become a reality that people have to live with," --- said.

The Oklahoma County DA's office said no one has been prosecuted with harboring, hiring or sheltering an illegal immigrant. Doing any of that is a felony under this new law.

Part of the new immigration law that requires employers to verify the legal status of their employees is currently being challenged in federal court.

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