Capitol Hill feels effect of HB 1804
Capitol Hill feels effect of HB 1804
By Jesse Olivarez
Comments 
31
Published: December 11, 2007
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.
More Info
Armando Lopez, co-owner of Capitol Hill Graffix, works on shirts ordered by a customer. Lopez and other business owners in the Capitol Hill district are concerned about the decrease in customers they have seen over the last two months. BY JIM BECKEL, THE OKLAHOMAN
Advertisement
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.
The smaller labor pool has started to affect smaller businesses such as Lopez's screen printing and graphics shop, which makes uniforms for businesses in the manufacturing and construction fields, she said. Those businesses, she said, have started to place smaller orders because their work crews have shrunk.
The smaller work orders have reduced Lopez's profits by 20 to 25 percent, she said. Although her business is surviving, Lopez said she has seen other shops in the Capitol Hill area close their doors in the past few weeks.
She said she hopes the law will not reverse the revival the district has experienced during the past several years.
"I grew up near here,” she said. "I remember how this area was ... there was nothing down here. I don't want it to go back to what it was.”
‘Taking a lot of people's dreams'
Some Capitol Hill residents said the law's most harmful effects have been to the community itself.
Rosie Esparza runs Mexico Transfers Inc., a money changing business near SW 25 and Robinson Avenue. Locals still come in to send money to Mexico or their native country, but their demeanor has changed, Esparza said.
She said the law seems to have drained some of the life out of the district.
"They used to come in here joking and smiling,” she said. "Now they come in and they're very serious. They don't talk as much. They seem afraid.”
Henri Dodd, owner of Love Street World Outreach, a clothing store and ministry in the Capitol Hill area, said a significantly smaller number of people come through the doors these days.
As recently as October, Dodd said busy days brought more than 25 people into her store to buy clothing or just to visit. Now, five people counts as a busy day, she said.
Maria, 17, a senior at U.S. Grant High School who refused to give her last name, said she comes to the district regularly to shop for groceries and clothes.
Maria said she immigrated with her family to Oklahoma from Mexico 14 years ago and went through the naturalization process to gain her citizenship.
She has watched many of her family's friends and neighbors leave and return to their native countries out of fear of being deported, she said.
Among those that left are friends who, like her, immigrated to the United States as young children and have no memories of their native countries.
For the ones who stayed behind, the future remains uncertain, she said.
"This law is taking a lot of people's dreams,” she said. "A lot of people that are in high school right now are the best in their class, but they're illegal. They're trying to do what they can, but they probably won't be able to continue their education because of where they were born. It's not fair.”
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).
Oklahoma will see an increase in skilled laborers when these traitor business begin to pay a decent wage. I love how these sympathizers act like Oklahoma is going into a nuclear winter because illegals are leaving our state. LMAO Give it up!
Oklahoma will see an increase in skilled laborers when these traitor business begin to pay a decent wage. I love how these sympathizers act like Oklahoma is going into a nuclear winter because illegals are leaving our state. LMAO Give it up!
As far as this Bill hurting Oklahoma, it may effect the businesses that cater to the Hispanic community, but other than that I feel like we should save money, since we don't have the extra expense of paying these families welfare benefits and college tution.
I hope other states pass similiar laws.
Someone told me that Okies would be perfectly fine if the illegal immigrants were German or English or any other white-skin native. I am starting to believe this.
Good luck to all the business owners of the "Sooner State".