On November 1st a new State Law will be in effect in Oklahoma.

Better known as the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007, House Bill 1804 seeks to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining state identification, and would require all state and local agencies to verify citizenship status of applicants before authorizing benefits.

The controversial, but widely support Bill, will also authorize the Police and all other enforcement agencies to report and detain undocumented people or just suspected to undocumented aliens.

Right wind Republicans, headed by Representative (R) Randy Terril of Moore, OK, its author, used the conjuncture created by the national discussion of the Immigration reform proposed by President George Bush.

Traditionally Republican, the "Sooner State" confronted last elections a sure disbanded of the Republican vote for the lack of arguments issues for the campaign. The majority disapproval of the War in Iraq, and the falls of Bush and the GOP in the polls, were a signal that something drastic have to be done, or many of the local Republican politicians would have a hard time coming back to the Big Building in Lincoln Avenue, East Oklahoma City.

A gray politician that was defeated several times in his effort for approve laws like the English Only Act, the Law to Prohibited access to higher education to undocumented aliens, and of course the one that become HB 1804.

Until 2006,for many in his own political party, Terril was no more than a charismatic politician in search of audience, specially among the "good old boys" that are a loud majority in the State that proudly present it self as "the buck belt in the Bible belt of the USA".

Since the approval of this law, signed by Governor (D) Brad Henry, Terril has been on top of the wave, calling his piece "an example for the treatment of illegal aliens in the United States". He has even announced that he will reintroduce the English Only State Act, and other bills to handle the issue of immigration and language in the State.

Several Hispanic organizations have filed legal complains and even an injunction to stop the controversial law taking in effect, but so far nothing has been accomplish.

Supporters of HB 1804, among those The Minute Man, the militia movement particularly active in the State, and other extremists groups are celebrating the effects of the law even before it goes in effect, because according to The South American Institute of Oklahoma, Oklahoma SI, a Non Profit organization to analyze political and economical issues on immigration in the Sate, hundreds if not thousand of undocumented immigrants have already moved to states "less drastic and more human in its treatment to undocumented workers"., said Carlos Pairazaman, Director of the Institute.

"In the other hand, Pairazaman said, many business people and professionals form different fields are warning the negative effects of the measure in the State Economy".

That is something that supporters of HB 1804 have miscalculated. Oklahoma is an State that has either big lows or steady but no tremendous highs in its economy, and anything that'll take away from it, will have a huge and negative impact.

Learn more about this author, Carlos Ortiz.
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