Capitol Hill feels effect of HB 1804

Ana Lopez knows how tough it is to run a small business. For four years, she has weathered the ups and downs of operating her screen printing and graphics shop in Oklahoma City's Capitol Hill district.

Making a profit, she said, got much harder after House Bill 1804 went into effect Nov. 1.

Lopez said her shop is one of several businesses in the Capitol Hill area to be adversely affected by HB 1804, a law making it illegal to harbor, conceal or transport illegal immigrants and barring illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses and public services.

In the Capitol Hill area, which has experienced a rebirth in recent years, business owners are concerned.

Exodus from state

Felix Perretti, chairman of the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said Hispanics — both legal and illegal — are leaving the state in large numbers.

For proof, he looks no further than the business logs at his store, Muebleria La Popular Furniture, 216 SW 29.

Before the law went into effect, Perretti estimates more than 60 percent of his clientele was Hispanic. Perretti said he has lost 40 to 50 percent of his Hispanic customers since September.

Although he is concerned for the loss of business, Perretti said he is even more troubled by the comments many immigrants have shared with him.

"They tell me they feel threatened by 1804,” he said. "Even the documented ones feel threatened. They feel they don't want immigrants in Oklahoma.”

While the exact number of people who have left Oklahoma is unclear, organizations across the state are seeing the exodus.

Mike Seney, senior vice president of operations for the state chamber, said skilled labor workers have been leaving the state in large numbers since mid-October.

Seney said employers across the state have reported they are having trouble filling jobs at nurseries, hotels, construction sites and restaurants, among others.

"We are in a skilled worker shortage,” he said. "Anything that is done that exacerbates that doesn't help the problem.”

Oklahoma's unemployment rate, 4.2 percent, means there is a very small pool of skilled workers available to fill the jobs, Seney said.

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