Leaders want employment order reversed
Immigration: Judge issued an injunction on House Bill 1804 in June
Oklahoma leaders want employment order reversed

By Robert E. Boczkiewicz

Published: August 29, 2008

DENVER — Oklahoma officials contend they cannot protect legal workers in the state from illegal immigrants competing for their jobs unless an appeals court allows state officials to enforce House Bill 1804.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson and other state officials asserted that position this week to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

"The Oklahoma Legislature had the authority to enact a statute, which protects the taxpayers and legal residents of the state of Oklahoma from suffering the adverse effects of illegal aliens,” the officials contend in 56 pages of arguments.

"While HB 1804 is enjoined, the state cannot protect its legal workers,” Edmondson, members of the Oklahoma Tax Commission and state Human Rights Commission said in the court filing.

State officials, in the new filing, want the appellate judges to either overturn Cauthron's order or instruct her to throw out the business groups' lawsuit that led to the order.

Cauthron blocked a section of the act that would require an employer to verify a worker's eligibility for employment in the United States before the employer could be eligible for state contracts.

The officials say as long as Cauthron's order is in effect, "the state may not collect all taxes it is due, therefore taking money away from programs designed to help legal Oklahoma residents.”

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