Juan Pedroza is a Research Associate at The Urban Institute’s Center on Labor, Human Services and Population. This originally appeared on the Urban Institute Metro Trends blog and is reposted with permission. Juan’s research will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Latino/Latin American Studies.

Are immigrants from states passing tough immigration laws leaving in droves? Since Alabama grabbed headlines after passing a restrictive law, accounts and images of idle store fronts, vacancy signs, empty pew aisles, and dips in school enrollment swept the airwaves.  News coverage of similar experiments in Arizona, Oklahoma, and Georgia also featured accounts of imminent flight. The mass exodus storyline is tempting because it stokes immigration control advocates and outrages immigrant rights advocates.

But are these accounts reliable? The answer is more complicated than the headlines. As I wrote in an article for The Journal of Latino-Latin American Studies, growing evidence suggests that most immigrants (especially families with school-age children) are here to stay, except perhaps where local economies are particularly weak (click here for the forthcoming article). Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago, we blogged about a special screening of the feature-length documentary Panic Nation at the University of Tulsa, and the film did not disappoint.  Filmaker George Adams was on hand to discuss the movie and the rise of state-sponsored immigration laws in the U.S.  The film addresses Oklahoma’s HB 1804 in depth, which at the time it passed in 2007 was seen as the most restrictive state immigration law in the country.

Panic Nation is available for sale online.  If you’ve seen the film, share your thoughts in the comments section below.  If you’re curious, check out this preview trailer:

© 2011 Caroline Cook

Immigration is back on the agenda in Oklahoma, four years after passage of  HB 1804, a law intended to give the state new powers to stem illegal immigration.  The issue is once again highly contentious, as Oklahoma wades further into areas of law traditionally reserved for the federal government.  Some are urging Oklahoma to push beyond HB 1804 and pass legislation akin to Arizona’s SB 1070 that received national attention as one of the strictest immigration laws in the country.  On the other side,  prominent business, religious, and community leaders caution lawmakers against enacting sweeping measures that target working families, are likely unconstitutional, and tarnish the state’s image.  They point to the mounting economic toll of similar legislation in other states – 45 million in hotel industry losses alone in Arizona – and worry that laws targeting employers scare off prospective investment and slow economic development.

Out of two dozen immigration bills introduced during the 2011 Legislative session, four are still active. Attention has focused on HB 1446, co-authored by the chairs of the special Joint Immigration Reform Committee, Rep. George Faught and Sen. Ron Justice, which legislative leadership has identified as “a starting point for the discussion” on immigration.  HB 1446 covers vast territory, with provisions pertaining to day labor, hiring, record-keeping, ‘human smuggling,’ and higher education.  Those who support additional state legislation on immigration cite the need to expand the authority of law enforcement to deal with drug trafficking, gang activity, human trafficking and human smuggling, problems which are seen to be exacerbated by illegal immigration.  Yet, HB 1446 (and sections of SB 908) only address the human smuggling concern and would make it arguably more difficult to isolate perpetrators of human smuggling. Read the rest of this entry »

In the spring of 2003, Saul Munoz* was a Tulsa high school senior thinking seriously about his future.  Saul’s parents had moved the family to Oklahoma years earlier, leaving Mexico at a time of increasing violence and instability, and he was not a legal U.S. resident.  A member of the National Honor Society, ranked in the top ten in his class, and enrolling in extra math and science classes to graduate with a Certificate of Distinction, Saul worried constantly about what would happen after graduation.  He couldn’t enroll in college and even if he were allowed to enroll he knew his family would struggle with the tuition payments.  His teachers, unaware of his immigration status, peppered him with questions about his plans and couldn’t understand why a student so smart and so clearly driven was not more proactive about applying for admission and scholarships. In February, a few months before graduation, Saul heard about a bill making its way through the state legislature. Read the rest of this entry »

No piece of legislation in Oklahoma in the past decade was more controversial or contentious than HB 1804. Passed in 2007, HB 1804 – officially designated the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Act – enacted a series of restrictions intended to limit access to jobs and public services for undocumented immigrants and to expand the powers of state and local law enforcement to verify the legal status of those they encounter.

Supporters and critics alike labeled HB 1804 as among “the toughest anti-illegal immigrant bills in the nation”. Supporters fervently hoped, while opponents fervently feared, that passage and implementation of HB 1804 would have a significant effect on the undocumented population of the state, encouraging many to leave the state and deterring others from coming, while making life harder and more precarious for those who remained. Read the rest of this entry »