President Joe Biden’s DOJ threatened Oklahoma over HB 4156, an immigration bill.
The law makes it a state crime to be in Oklahoma illegally, allows state and local law enforcement to arrest illegal aliens, and requires the illegal aliens to leave within 72 hours after conviction or release from custody.
Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general, told Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Attorney General Genter Drummond that the state could not enforce HB 4156 due to federal law, which violates the Constitution, compared to the Texas immigration law.
“The United States intends to file suit to enjoin the enforcement of HB 4156 unless Oklahoma agrees to refrain from enforcing the law,” warned Boynton. “The United States is committed to the processing of noncitizens consistent with the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). HB 4156 is contrary to that goal.”
Boynton told Stitt and Boynton that “Congress has established a comprehensive scheme governing noncitizens’ entry and reentry into the United States, including penalties for unlawful entry and reentry.”
The Oklahoma law intends to “create a separate state immigration scheme” with penalties for violating federal laws.
“HB 4156 therefore intrudes into a field that is occupied by the federal government and is preempted,” added Boynton.
Boynton claims the Oklahoma law “interferes with the federal government’s ability to enforce the entry and reentry provisions of the INA.” He also accuses Oklahoma of wanting to regulate an illegal alien’s “unlawful presence” in the country.
Drummond fired back, reminding Boynton that Biden has spent over three years ignoring the border and federal immigration laws. Therefore, Oklahoma has no choice but to take action to protect its citizens and borders.
He cites the late Justice Scalia’s concurring in part and dissenting in part of Arizona v. United States:
In any event, HB 4156 does not create a separate immigration system for Oklahoma. This is not even close. Rather, Oklahoma is exercising its concurrent and complementary power as a sovereign state to address an ongoing public crisis within its borders through appropriate legislation. 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. In short, Oklahoma “has moved to protect its sovereignty–not in contradiction of federal law, but in complete compliance with it. The laws under challenge her do not extend or revise federal immigration restrictions, but merely enforece those restrictions more effectively.”
Remember Arizona v. USA? The Democrats instilled fear into people, making them think the state would require people to carry their papers and would stop them if they looked like illegal aliens.
Drummond insists that racial profiling won’t happen because of this bill.
In January, Drummond told a House committee that Biden’s open borders have affected Oklahoma:
“A very large population of Mexican cartel members and Chinese syndicated crime organization members, who have found a way to Oklahoma via the Mexican border,” Drummond said.He said one of the biggest problems is the drug movement.”We know with absolute certainty that the fentanyl product is coming from China into Mexico, manufactured in Mexico,” Drummond said.
Drummond said Oklahoma “identified a partnership between the Chinese syndicated crime organizations and the sophisticated Mexican cartels that are partnering in Mexico.”
“They’re transferring the fentanyl, getting it across the border,” added Drummond.
In 2022, a quadruple murder shook Oklahoma at an illegal marijuana farm in Hennessey, OK. A Chinese national pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. He claimed the four people owed him $300,000.
NPR has a fascinating interview describing why Chinese organized crime and Mexican cartels target Oklahoma. Read this part:
ROTELLA: Sure. I mean, these are thousands of workers, most of them themselves Chinese immigrants, many of whom come across the Mexican border. I interviewed one who, you know – it’s classic odyssey, coming from China all the way through South America, up across the Mexican border, gets caught, applies for asylum, gets released, makes his way to New York, and he hears that that there’s work in the marijuana farms of Oklahoma. So he shows up. He’s, you know, in Oklahoma and gets to work and he finds, you know, hundreds and thousands like him. And they are working on these farms.
So this Oklahoman has one thing to say to the DOJ: SHOVE IT.
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