Oklahoma Makes It Mark on Immigration Legislation Passes House
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Rep. Rick West
Illegal Immigration Legislation Passes House
The House last week passed a bill creating the crime of impermissible occupation. Anyone in Oklahoma who came into the country illegally must leave the state or face imprisonment, fines, or both.
House Bill 4156 is aimed at helping us get a handle on illegal aliens entering the state after crossing the country’s wide-open southern border. It’s not just people seeking humanitarian aid or asylum that are coming into our nation, we have documented cases of drug, sex and labor traffickers, cartel members and terrorists. The Biden Administration is to blame for this fiasco. In 2019, Biden called for a surge at the southern border, and we got one. He’s failed to do anything to stop it. Now, it’s every state for itself.
Another good bill that passed the House last week is Senate Bill 1994, which would allow a property owner to request the county sheriff to immediately remove a person or persons unlawfully occupying their property.
This is becoming a big problem in our area and throughout the state. Law enforcement are often reluctant to get involved in private property disputes, leaving property owners to hire an attorney and fight it out in civil court if someone just illegally sets up camp on their property. This process can drag out for a long time. This bill gives the local sheriff’s better guidance and should protect property owners’ rights.
The governor signed my House Bill 2975 into law last week, which will allow homemade food producers to pay $15 to get a registration number for product labels instead of having to list their names, personal phone numbers and home addresses, if they so desire. This bill was a constituent request. I’m glad to see it become law. It takes effect in November.
Also last week, I introduced House Resolution 1037 to remember the 29th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. I lost seven co-workers in this terrible act of mass murder. As I do every year, I read their names on the House floor, and I’ll repeat them here: Olan Bloomer, Peggy Clark, Jim Boles, Dick Cummings, Adele Higginbottom, Carol Khalil, Rheta Long.
For this year’s ceremony, I asked our state Agriculture Secretary Blayne Arthur to share the story of her mom’s death in the bombing. In a weird twist of fate, I ended up working with Arthur’s sister, Rosslyn Biggs. We started talking one day, and it came out that Biggs’ mom was my former co-worker Peggy Clark. I just about fell out of my truck. I knew then that I had to let these women tell their story, and there was not a dry eye in the House when they did.
There are people that were not born or were just babies when this terrorist act occurred. It’s up to us that remember to keep telling our stories so we never, ever forget, and so it will never be repeated.
As always, if I can help you with anything, feel free to call my Capital office at (405) 557-7413 or email me at rick.west@okhouse.gov.
