By Juan Miret
Hispano de Tulsa

Tulsa, OK — The burden of 1804 began 180 days ago and to this day the state government has not provided an informative statement as to how to apply the law.

The result: chaos, confusion and fear.

In the last few days there have been several cases which exemplify abuses and excesses that can be expected when there is a lack of information. One of them involved the arrest of 10 immigrants and the other affected several Hispanic businesses.

Immigrants arrested at work

On April 23 an anonymous call made to the Pryor Sheriff’s Department, located in Mayes County 37 miles outside of Tulsa, caused Sheriff Frank Cantey’s mobilization to arrest 10 suspected illegal immigrants.

The arrests were made at D&D Interiors, a construction company.

It was revealed, during investigations after the arrests, that not all those arrested lacked immigration documents; at this time, the identity of those abused is being protected in order to speed up the prosecution process.

What is more alarming about this situation is that Sheriff Cantey’s office, who declined Hispano de Tulsa’s invitation for comments, has a message on their information portal stating that “watchful eyes are an important part of our efforts…please call the Sheriff’s confidential number: 825-3820 with your observations.”

Apparently anonymous calls, necessary to report crime, can also be tools for acts of discrimination. We wonder: what does an undocumented person look like? Possibly a person with darker skin? Or maybe a person who speaks a different language?

By Juan Miret
Hispano Tulsa

Tulsa, OK — The Oklahoma House of Representatives said yes to the proposal of “English only” to declare English as the only state language. Another crushing vote of 70 to 28 slapped reason and tolerance in the face.

Days prior to the ill-fated vote, several organizations started calling the legislators to inform and warn them of the adverse consequences such a project would produce.

Tulsa’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, directed by Francisco Treviño, published an official position of absolute rejection to the new project by Republican Terrill.

In addition, letters were sent to all the legislators’ offices at the state capitol.

However, the offensive was not enough and just two minutes before ending the session on April 23, the Lower House turned its back to the community again and submitted the project known as SB163 to the Senate.

Now, it is the turn of the 48 senators to make a decision of continuing or not the path to backwardness and isolation.

What do the supporters of the proposal say?

Republican representative Shane Jett surprised many by giving his support to Terrill’s project due to his recent closeness to the Hispanic community. In fact, he was getting ready for an event to collect funds for his campaign; however Jett decided to support the “English only” proposal, showing where he stands in this matter.

Through an electronic message, Jett expressed: “I choose to spend my energy trying to make a real change on the immigration issue, instead of deliberating on a dumb and ridiculous issue such as language.”

It is true that Jett tried to add an amendment to establish a program for employee registration, however his suggestion was rejected, and that makes it even more difficult to understand his vote.

Opinion

By Juan Miret
Hispano de Tulsa

Tulsa, OK - On April 16, Republican representative Randy Terrill, author of the severe 1804 and creator of the legislative project “English only," wrote a brief article in the electronic version of an Anglo-Saxon newspaper.

Twenty-eight lines and 142 words were needed to repeat the term “illegal alien” to satiety and to justify the consequences brought by 1804, after almost 6 months of its enforcement.

According to Terrill, the huge majority of Oklahoma supports his project: “more than 80 percent supports our law (1804) and I am 99.99 percent sure that it will reflect the same support at the national level”.

This assertion is totally different to a statistical study made by the company The Terrance Group who surveyed 500 registered Oklahoma voters, of which an impressive 52 percent were against local immigration laws and in favor of federal action.

On the other hand, the 80 percent Terrill preaches about contradicts the 37 percent of Oklahoma voters who support restrictive immigration laws similar to 1804.

Later on, the radical legislative author points out that 1804 “goes beyond merely economic issues, it is about fundamental principles and values…like dignity and morality.”

This is a strong statement to make since in the title of 1804 one finds the supposed protection of the contributors but not a thing about morality.