OKLAHOMA CITY – State Attorney General Gentner Drummond joined a legal brief supporting Texas in its effort to preserve their controversial immigration law, because Oklahoma too is coping with undocumented immigrants.
If ultimately 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.
“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 would “clear the way for local law enforcement in Oklahoma and throughout the country.”
Filed by Drummond and 21 other state attorneys general, the amicus brief argues 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,” the brief states. “That renders much, if not all, of Senate Bill 4 complimentary to federal law, not in conflict with it.”
The brief says Oklahoma and other states support the Texas law because they “bear an obligation to their citizens to address the attendant public crisis.” The brief notes that obligation involves one of the states’ “core sovereign prerogatives: enacting legislation pursuant to their police powers to protect their citizens’ safety.”
The Biden administration and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit over the law. A U.S. district court blocked the law, but the U.S. Supreme Court said Texas was free to enforce it during litigation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rescinded its order to allow enforcement of SB 4 last week and took no action on the constitutional challenges to the law.
Drummond joined 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 16 indicted for illegal reentry Although Oklahoma is nearly 750 miles north of Brownsville, Texas, at the Rio Grande River dividing the U.S. and Mexico, the Sooner State is on the front line of efforts to stem the influx of undocumented immigrants.
The U.S. Justice Department released a list of 16 indictments for felony illegal reentry into the U.S. that were handed down in Oklahoma City and Tulsa federal district courts in February and March.
• Fernando Gonzalez-Leyva, 53, has five aliases and has been deported from the U.S. on seven occasions. He was arrested Jan. 24 by Catoosa police for public intoxication, obstructing an officer and threatening a violent act.
• Jorge Luis Perez-Ambriz, 32, was arrested Jan. 11 by Tulsa police for obstruction, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana. He has been removed from the U.S. on six prior occasions, most recently in September 2018.
• Emmanuel Alvicter-Martinez, 36, was charged with felony reentry on Feb. 14. He was previously removed from the U.S. on May 16, 2017; March 29, 2018; and six weeks later, on May 11, 2018.
• Pedro Chaver-Suazo, 37, was living in Lawton when he was arrested by a U.S. Border Patrol agent on Feb. 2. He was previously deported to his native Honduras in February 2007.
• Manuel Antonio Mingura Rivas, 55, was sitting in the Caddo County Jail in Anadarko on Dec. 2, 2023, when investigators learned he was previously deported in 2011 to his native Mexico. Mingura-Rivas pleaded guilty March 4 to illegal reentry after removal from the U.S., and is awaiting sentencing.
• Juan Adolfo De Lira-Davila pleaded guilty March 12 in Tulsa’s Northern District federal court to illegal reentry to the United States after having been previously deported in 2015. He, too, awaits sentencing.
• Jorge Luis Castillo-Mejia, 31, was arrested in Oklahoma County last July. Records show the Honduras native was deported from the U.S. in 2017 and again in 2020.
• Hector Esparza-Varela, 44, arrested in western Oklahoma on Feb. 27, was previously deported from the U.S. in 2009, 2016 and 2021.
• Juan Cervando Cervantes Sepulveda was arrested in northern Oklahoma on Dec. 27, 2023, and charged with reentry into the U.S. after being deported in June 2022 at Laredo, Texas. Sepulveda was released from custody on $10,000 unsecured bond March 20 pending trial or a plea.
• Edin Emanuel Gramajo- Gramajo, 47, was arrested Jan. 12 in Newcastle. Previously he was removed from the U.S. to Guatemala in January 2013 and again in February 2014.
• Miguel Orozco-Perez, 31, was arrested in western Oklahoma last August and charged with illegal reentry to the U.S. He was previously deported to Mexico in 2013.
• Alonso Escareno-Castro, 34, was arrested in western Oklahoma last July. He was previously removed from the U.S. in 2008 and again in 2013.
• Yener Osvaldo Lopez- Mendez, 31, pleaded guilty in Oklahoma City’s Western District federal court March 11 to illegal reentry to the U.S. last year after having been deported to Guatemala in 2021. He awaits sentencing.
• Candido Willy Larios- Martinez, 30, was arrested in western Oklahoma in January and charged with illegal reentry. He was removed from the U.S. in August 2013 and again in September 2014.
• Oscar Rojo-Garcia, 35, who previously was removed from the U.S. in 2007, was arrested in western Oklahoma on Jan. 25 and charged with illegal reentry.
• Alejandro Villalobos-Mecias, 33, a/k/a Jorge Morales Lopez, was deported from the U.S. in 2019 but was arrested in western Oklahoma last month.