Drummond pushes back against DOJ challenge of Oklahoma’s new immigration reform law

OKLAHOMA CITY (June 17, 2024) – Responding to the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit challenging House Bill 4156, Attorney General Gentner Drummond contends the Biden Administration’s opposition amounts to “speculative assumptions about how HB 4156 will be implemented, spurious legal conclusions about the law’s underpinnings, and fundamental misconceptions about a state’s sovereign rights and duties in a federalist system of government.”

The Attorney General’s June 13 filing in federal court argues that Oklahoma’s new immigration reform law is important because the nation’s porous border has imperiled public safety statewide.

“The damage to Oklahoma might have been ameliorated had the [federal] government made a priority of securing the country’s border. But an unprecedented crisis has been met with unconscionable inaction,” reads the brief.

As a result, Chinese crime syndicates and Mexican drug cartels have invaded the state’s medical marijuana industry.

“The border crisis has swamped Oklahoma with an unprecedented onslaught of criminal activity,” reads the filing. “It takes the form of ‘illegal marijuana grow operations, which have exploded in number in recent years.’ … It brings ‘fentanyl distribution, sex trafficking, and labor trafficking’ at the hands of ‘organized crime, such as drug cartels, [that] have no regard for Oklahoma’s laws or public safety.’ … Oklahoma’s communities are being harmed and harassed, while its law enforcement officers are overburdened and overwhelmed.”

HB 4156, which is slated to take effect July 1, enables state law enforcement to arrest and incarcerate illegal immigrants.

Read the state’s response.