Immigration battle gains strength

Some carried bilingual signs or U.S. flags. Others carried small children. More than a thousand, primarily Hispanic, protesters congregated Thursday outside the state Capitol in objection to House Bill 1804.

It went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

It is one of the toughest immigration enforcement measures in the nation. It prevents illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses or public services. It requires law enforcement to detain and coordinate the deportation of illegal immigrants arrested for felonies or DUIs.

It also criminalizes harboring, concealing or transporting illegal immigrants.

Jose Sifuentes is an American citizen who has worked for the same company for 20 years.

He attended the rally with his wife — who is in the process of becoming an American citizen — and extended family members and friends.

"Mr. Terrill is making criminals out of all of us,” Sifuentes said of Rep. Randy Terrill, author of HB 1804. "American citizens are married to people without papers, or their parents do not have papers. He has made them criminals because we are not going to turn in our family and help to have them deported.”

About a dozen Hispanic community leaders and Catholic clergy addressed the crowd, also admonishing the bill and those who voted for it.

"Today is a sunny day, but it is the darkest day in Oklahoma history. Today, we will break up more families. Today, children will be harmed. Today, the Oklahoma economy will suffer,” said Franco Cevallos, the publisher of a local Spanish-language publication. "This is a racially motivated bill by an unscrupulous politician who has pushed it for his own self-interest.”

"I think a lot of the horror stories are highly unlikely and unprobable. At this point, I would think they would stop the inflammatory rhetoric,” said Terrill, R-Moore. "This fear and anxiety has been whipped up by the leaders of the Latino and Hispanic community.”

Around the perimeters of the crowd, there was a small but vocal group with some rhetoric of its own.

Three self-proclaimed Minutemen drove around the edge of the parking lot, shouting for the crowd to go home. As the Oklahoma Highway Patrol intervened, the truck sped away. Another man attempted to walk into the crowd, yelling for "all illegals to go back to Mexico,” but troopers quickly removed him. He set up across the street with his sign.

Then, TV crews caught a shouting match between a Hispanic Realtor and a white U.S. armed services veteran.

Among the loud but few counterprotesters was Jack McBrayer, 43. He wasn't yelling. He wore a baseball cap with the word "Mexico” written on it. But the word had been crossed out by a black marker.

"They got their signs and I got mine,” McBrayer said.

"We've got people who come here legally that follow immigration laws, that learn to speak English and that want to become American citizens,” McBrayer said. "But these people come here illegally. They don't respect our laws. They refuse to learn our language. The problem is they are coming here and trying to make this country theirs.”

Carmen Sanchez, a legal resident, has lived in Oklahoma for 27 years. She thinks if most Americans knew about the poverty and political corruption in Mexico, they would better understand why so many risk coming here. In Mexico, she and her family lived in extreme poverty, but in Oklahoma they found work and prosperity.

"When I think of this law, my heart cries for the children. So many children are being separated from their parents because of this,” Sanchez said. "We just come to make a better life for our families.”

For other citizens of the United States, such as Carol Soto, immigration fears have hit even closer to home.

Two weeks ago, she said, her aunt was deported.

"They went to her house. They told her they would wait until she picked up her kids,” Soto said. "When she came back, they took her away.”

The aunt left behind a husband and four children. The husband, also illegal, recently drove the two youngest children back to Mexico. He will try to sneak back across the border so he can work and pay for his family's return, Soto said.

Meanwhile, the two older children remain here with extended family members.

"It's been very hard on the children. They are so scared,” Soto said.

Others who were at the protest are not here legally but came here to work.

"This country is not ours. But since we are here, we are gong to fight for our rights,” said Isobel, an illegal immigrant who came to this country about five years ago. She was at the protest with 10 other immigrants from work.

"When I came across the border, I already knew this might be the case,” Isobel said of the possibility of deportation. "But I came to work, that's the reason I came here. We don't come to hurt anyone. And I will keep working.”

Among the crowd of so many were about a dozen black people. Some wore NAACP T-shirts. At least one even carried signs.

Also present were a handful of black community leaders, including state Rep. Mike Shelton and Roosevelt Milton, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Oklahoma City chapter.

"This is how change happens. They are not the first group to come to the south side steps of the Capitol to change things,” Shelton said. "I'm a firm believer of Dr. Martin Luther King, and it's like he said, ‘Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.'

"And it's important that people don't have to walk alone. The black people didn't walk alone in their struggle,” he added.

Milton, too, pointed to the common struggles of Hispanics and blacks. But he also noted that the black community itself is still divided on the subject.

A few days ago, he attended a news conference standing beside Hispanic leaders, protesting HB 1804.

It sparked some controversy in the community, he said.

Some said he should focus on the many Haitian immigrants whose plight has largely been overlooked while others praised him and joined the NAACP, Milton said.