Oklahoma law criminalizing immigrants without legal status is blocked

A federal judge on Friday temporarily banned Oklahoma from enforcing a new immigration law that would make it a crime to enter the state without legal permission to stay in the United States.

The ruling, which comes just days before the law was set to take effect Monday, is the latest legal setback for Republican-controlled states that have tested the limits of their role in immigration by passing their own laws designed to crack down on people who cross the border illegally. The Justice Department argues that only the federal government can regulate and enforce immigration.

A Texas law that would have given state and local police officers the authority to arrest undocumented immigrants was put on hold by a federal appeals court in March after a flurry of legal action that at one point took the case to the Supreme Court.

Then in May, a federal judge temporarily blocked part of a Florida law that made it a crime to transport unauthorized immigrants into the state. And in mid-June, an Iowa law that would have made it a crime for an immigrant to enter the state after being deported or denied entry was suspended by a district court.

In the Oklahoma case, U.S. District Judge Bernard M. Jones ruled wrote in his ruling that the state “may have understandable frustrations with the problems caused by illegal immigration,” but that the state “may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.” He issued a preliminary injunction, staying enforcement of the law while a lawsuit over the law’s constitutionality continues.

Under the new law, knowingly entering and remaining in Oklahoma without legal immigration status would be one state crime called an “unauthorized occupation.” A first offense would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison and a $500 fine; a subsequent offense would be a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

After signing the bill into law in late April, Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, said the measure was necessary because the Biden administration had not taken adequate action to deter migrants from crossing the southern border illegally.

“Our hand has been forced by the unprecedented border security crisis,” Mr Stitt said in a rack at that moment. “We cannot sit idle as threats to our security increase due to the Biden administration’s complete failure to provide even minimal protections.”

The number of people crossing the U.S. border has reached record highs under the Biden administration, though it has declined in recent months. Border agents included about 170,000 encounters with migrants in May, compared to a high of more than 300,000 in December. The number of unlawful border crossings has fallen further since June 4, when the Biden administration unveiled new asylum restrictions.

The Oklahoma law was quickly challenged. The Justice Department, which sued the state in May, said the law violated the United States Constitution, which gives the federal government broad powers in the area of ​​immigration.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other legal groups also filed a lawsuit on behalf of several individuals and an Oklahoma-based advocacy group, Padres Unidos de Tulsa. She argued that the legislation could “uproot and deport” thousands of immigrants in Oklahoma and deny entry to the state for others, including asylum seekers and people pursuing other legal immigration statuses.

“This is a harmful law that threatened to tear apart Oklahoma families and communities, and the court was right to block it,” Noor Zafar, a staff attorney at the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement rack.

The state attorney general’s office said Friday it planned to appeal Judge Jones’ decision.

Mitch Smith contributed to the reporting.