“Public safety is my paramount concern”: Oklahoma AG joins legal brief in support of Texas immigration law
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Oklahoma's Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced on Thursday, he will join a legal brief supporting Texas while pushing for State legislation to address illegal immigration crisis.
“The Biden Administration refuses to secure the border, so the states must act to protect our people,” Drummond said. “Oklahoma suffers the consequences of our porous border every single day. A legal victory for Texas clears the way for local law enforcement in Oklahoma and throughout the country.”
Senate Bill 4, passed in Texas in 2023, allows Texas law enforcement to arrest and deport migrants who enter the state illegally from Mexico.
If successful, Oklahoma and other states will be empowered to declare illegal immigration a state crime and authorize state officials to enforce it. House and Senate leaders already have indicated a willingness to craft similar legislation to protect Oklahoma.
On Wednesday, Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, issued a statement regarding his intent to file legislation to secure the border of Oklahoma against the ongoing illegal immigration crisis.
"The failed policies of the Biden Administration have turned every state into a border state," McCall said. "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."
Drummond alongside 21 other state attorneys general, argue that states have the right to enact and enforce laws that do not explicitly conflict with federal statute. “Texas essentially has codified portions of federal immigration law as Texas state law,” reads the brief. “That renders much, if not all, of S.B. 4 complimentary to federal law, not in conflict with it.”
The timeline of the Senate Bill 4 passing to its rescinding started with the Biden Administration and the ACLU filed suit over the law. Next, the U.S. district court blocked the law, but the U.S. Supreme Court said Texas was free to enforce it during litigation. Currently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has rescinded its order to allow enforcement of SB 4 this week and took no action on the constitutional challenges to the law.
Drummond said on Wednesday, the ongoing border crisis may lead the nation’s highest court to set new precedent regarding the enforcement of immigration laws.
Attorney General Drummond is joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming on the amicus brief co-led by Ohio and South Carolina.