The Justice Department sued Oklahoma this week over a new immigration law that would fine and jail migrants who are in the state without legal documentation.
The complaint, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, maintains the law violates the Constitution, which gives the federal government jurisdiction over immigration and border control.
The department also says in the lawsuit that the Oklahoma law violates a clause in the Constitution that limits the power a state has to regulate the international movement of people.
The law, which is scheduled to take effect July 1, is the latest move by a Republican-run state to try to take immigration matters into its own hands, arguing the Biden administration isn't doing enough to control the southern border.
The Justice Department sued Texas and Iowa this year for passing similar laws, which are on hold until the cases are resolved.
Oklahoma House Bill 4156 says noncitizens commit an “impermissible occupation” when they enter the state without having permission to be in the U.S. and gives law enforcement authority to arrest and jail them.
The Oklahoma law states that it will protect the health, safety, welfare and constitutional rights of the state's citizens and that immigrants in the U.S. illegally could pose potential harm to residents.
A first conviction would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in county jail and a $500 fine. A second conviction would be a felony carrying a sentence of up to two years in county jail and a $1,000 fine.
People convicted of either violation would have to leave Oklahoma within three days of being released from jail.
“Oklahoma cannot disregard the U.S. Constitution,” Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement. “We have brought this action to ensure that Oklahoma adheres to the Constitution and the framework adopted by Congress for regulation of immigration.”
Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who signed the bill into law last month and is named in the suit, was unavailable for comment Wednesday. But he said in an earlier statement that the bill was necessary because "the Biden administration refuses to do its job to secure our borders."
“Not only that, but they stand in the way of states trying to protect their citizens," he added.
State Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican who is also named in the suit, has said Oklahoma had no choice but to pass the bill to help combat an “illegal immigration crisis.”
“This law is a powerful tool to combat those foreign nationals who enter and remain in this country illegally, and who become involved in serious criminal activity,” Drummond said in a statement Monday.
Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union in Oklahoma said the legislation was one of the most extreme anti-immigration bills in the country. It said it would lead to racial profiling and would force Latinos, Black people and people from other communities of color into the criminal justice system.
“The ACLU of Oklahoma stands with our immigrant communities and firmly believes Oklahoma politicians are, once again, out of touch with who we aspire to be,” the organization said in a statement on April 30.
