Son of Shame

(Okie Funk again dedicates Steve Earle's song "City of Immigrants" to state Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, who authored House Bill 1804, the anti-illegal immigration bill wreaking havoc in Oklahoma right now. Give it a listen. Turn up the speakers.)

It may sound like a parody, but the “son of 1804 bill” is coming to Oklahoma this next legislative session, according to state Rep. Randy Terrill (R-Moore). But this is no Saturday Night Live skit, folks.

Terrill, who authored House Bill 1804, which gave Oklahoma some of the strictest anti-illegal immigration laws in the nation, has started publicly calling his next initiative “son of 1804 bill” in a political stunt that can only be viewed as calculated and mean-spirited. People’s lives are at stake here. Maybe we should ditch the colorful nomenclature.

The new laws essentially make it illegal for anyone to help an undocumented person and cuts off state aid to anyone here illegally. Under Terrill’s new, proposed initiatives, English would become the state’s official language, law enforcement agencies could seize assets used to help undocumented workers and school districts would have to provide more extensive reporting on students here illegally.

Terrill, pictured right, is sure to have support in the legislature for his measure. Let’s face it. Terrill is on a roll. The Daily Oklahoman, which has editorialized against HB 1804, recently ran a story that called Terrill’s new initiatives “reforms.” As long as the newspaper clings to GOP rhetoric in its news columns about this issue, its editorial stance will fall on deaf ears. The newspaper tries to have it both ways. It gives Terrill plenty of news space for his initiatives under the rhetorical frame of “reform” and then criticizes this so-called “reform.”

Where all this is going to lead the state is the Mississippi Burning question. Certainly, undocumented workers are not welcome here. It would be personally unethical (and perhaps illegal) to encourage someone here illegally to stay in Oklahoma. The local Catholic Diocese and other religious leaders have called the new laws “immoral,” but it was too little and far too late to have any meaningful impact. The loss of undocumented workers in the state will, of course, affect the business and agricultural communities. That is a certainty. How much effect will it have? It is really anyone’s guess at this point.

Where was everyone some two years ago when the first anti-immigration bill was introduced? (It was later killed.) Some of us were personally attacked for our stances against the measure back then. Since then, many others have stepped forward to argue for a reasonable approach to the illegal immigration problem, which is a federal issue. But this is mostly after the fact.

One looming question is whether the new and proposed laws will decimate the Hispanic community in the state. All local Hispanic people, citizens and others, have a right to be worried about racial profiling at this point, not just by law enforcement agencies, but also by some of their neighbors and maybe even educators in days to come. This is most unfortunate. It is ugly and unnecessary.

There are more reasonable ways to fix the illegal-immigration problem, which is a very real and important problem. But it all starts on the federal level. Oklahoma does not exist in a vacuum. Our new laws solve nothing on a larger scale when it comes to the millions of undocumented workers in this country. Meanwhile, the new laws make the state seem intolerant and unwelcoming.