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Oklahoma
Posted: May 22, 2024 6:48 AMUpdated: May 22, 2024 6:48 AM
DOJ Sues Oklahoma Over It's Illegal Immigration Law
AP
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Oklahoma on Tuesday over a state law that seeks to impose criminal penalties on those living in the state illegally.
The lawsuit in federal court in Oklahoma City challenges an Oklahoma law that makes it a state crime — punishable by up to two years in prison — to live in the state without legal immigration status. Similar laws passed in Texas and Iowa already are facing challenges from the Justice Department. Oklahoma is among several GOP states jockeying to push deeper into immigration enforcement as both Republicans and Democrats seize on the issue. Other bills targeting migrants have been passed this year in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.
The Justice Department says the Oklahoma law violates the U.S. Constitution and is asking the court to declare it invalid and bar the state from enforcing it.
“Oklahoma cannot disregard the U.S. Constitution and settled Supreme Court precedent,” U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement. “We have brought this action to ensure that Oklahoma adheres to the Constitution and the framework adopted by Congress for regulation of immigration.” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said the bill was necessary because the Biden administration is failing to secure the nation’s borders.
“Not only that, but they stand in the way of states trying to protect their citizens,” Stitt said in a statement.
The federal action was expected, as the Department of Justice warned Oklahoma officials last week that the agency would sue unless the state agreed not to enforce the new law.
In response, Drummond called the DOJ’s preemption argument “dubious at best” and said that while the federal government has broad authority over immigration, it does not have “exclusive power” on the subject.
“Oklahoma is exercising its concurrent and complementary power as a sovereign state to address an ongoing public crisis within its borders through appropriate legislation,” Drummond wrote in a letter to the DOJ. “Put more bluntly, Oklahoma is cleaning up the Biden Administration’s mess through entirely legal means in its own backyard – and will resolutely continue to do so by supplementing federal prohibitions with robust state penalties.”18 months.
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