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What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
This Week from OK Policy
The federal housing bill is worth celebrating. Now state leaders must act.: Congressional members rarely agree on anything, but last month they agreed on one thing: all Americans should have the opportunity to own a home. On July 11, 2026, Congress passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing package. The bill does a lot, but one thing it does not do is absolve the state legislature of their duty to ensure Oklahomans have safe, affordable housing. [Sabine Brown / OK Policy]
Policy Matters: Worker empowerment strengthens Oklahoma businesses: Labor Day arrives each year as the unofficial end of summer. But its history asks us to remember something more important: Our economy’s strength depends on the people who do the work. Generations of workers organizing for better conditions shaped many workplace standards Americans now take for granted. The labor movement helped advance the eight-hour workday, weekends, overtime protections, safer workplaces and restrictions on child labor. These gains helped more than just union members. They set standards for what a good job should be for workers throughout our economy. [Shiloh Kantz / The Journal Record]
Lawmakers consider new approaches to Oklahoma’s domestic violence crisis (Capitol Update): Last week, the Criminal Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Rande Worthen, R-Lawton, held an interim study led by Rep. Ellyn Hefner, D-Oklahoma City, on Oklahoma’s persistent and growing domestic violence problem. The study was combined with a request led by Rep. Aletia Timmons, D-Oklahoma City, to examine whether Oklahoma should create a domestic violence registry requiring certain people convicted of domestic abuse to register, similar to the state’s sex offender registry. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
Weekly What’s That
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a federal program that protects certain undocumented immigrants from deportation and allows them to work legally in the United States. Created by an Obama administration Executive Order in 2012, it allows people who were brought to the United States without authorization before their 16th birthday to apply for temporary protected status for two years, renewable for two year terms. Applicants must meet several criteria, as defined by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services:
- Be under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012;
- Came to the United States before reaching your 16th birthday;
- Have continuously resided in the United States since June 15, 2007, up to the present time;
- Were physically present in the United States on June 15, 2012, and at the time of making your request for consideration of deferred action with USCIS;
- Had no lawful status on June 15, 2012;
- Are currently in school, have graduated or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, have obtained a general education development (GED) certificate, or are an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States; and
- Have not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, or three or more other misdemeanors, and do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.
In 2017, the Trump administration announced that it planned to end DACA. A federal court ruled that action illegal and kept the program in place. In June 2020, the Supreme Court overturned the Trump Administration’s decision to end DACA. On July 16, 2021, a U.S. district court in Texas issued a decision and injunction holding that DACA is unlawful and freezing applications from first-time applicants, but allowing the program to continue for current recipients. The Texas court’s decision was upheld by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in October 2022. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a final rule in 2022 that, with limited changes, continues the DACA policy that was announced in 2012.
In September 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found DACA unlawful. In November 2023, the case was appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals; based on the Court’s January 2025 ruling, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will continue to accept and process DACA renewal requests and accompanying applications for employment authorization. The agency will continue to accept initial DACA requests, but not process them.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“I do not want Oklahoma to be known as the state with the highest food insecurity rates. I want Oklahoma to be known for how we responded to this news. Oklahomans know how to take care of each other. We have seen it time and again, whether responding to tornadoes, floods, or a government shutdown. Addressing this challenge will take all of us, from government and business leaders to organizations and individuals throughout our communities, pulling in the same direction.”
– Jeff Marlow, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, speaking about the collective action needed to address Oklahoma’s growing food insecurity. [Tulsa Flyer]
Op-Ed of the Week
Opinion: Detaining hard-working immigrants costs Oklahoma taxpayers
The Trump administration’s campaign to arrest and detain immigrants was supposed to target violent criminals — the worst of the worst. But across the country and here in Oklahoma, we’ve seen a far different scenario play out: Federal agents are arresting hard-working mothers and fathers who were on their way to work, ripping families apart and leaving employers scrambling to cover those positions. I think it is also important to talk about how this policy is costing our state millions in lost taxes, not to mention the additional cost to taxpayers for detaining these men and women. When those people aren’t working, it’s an economic loss to local businesses, a hit to Oklahoma’s workforce and our tax revenues.
Right now, there are two detention centers in our state, and both were previously private prisons. The Watonga facility alone is earning $100 million a year for housing ICE detainees, and the federal government spent another $13 million in improvements to reopen that facility. Each detainee costs up to $200 a day to keep locked up. That’s all taxpayer dollars.
This is at a time when taxpayers cannot afford to pay to detain people who would otherwise be at work, contributing to the economy and paying taxes. I think it is accurate to say that between 90% and 95% of the people being detained were on their way to work when ICE arrested them. Without even factoring in the human toll of these unjust policies, we know the state is losing the taxes these people were paying, and it is a significant amount of money — funds that could be going into our public schools, health care, transportation and other core services, including public safety.
When you look at the high cost to taxpayers for detaining and ultimately deporting people and the fact that the majority of these men and women were simply earning a living and contributing to society, none of this makes sense from a fiscal standpoint. These are not hardened criminals and gang members, which is what the administration said they’d be going after. These are construction workers, people working in restaurants and hotels, factories and on farms and ranches. They pay rent, buy groceries, clothing and other goods and services in their communities, and they pay local, state and federal taxes.
Here in Oklahoma, the current number of people considered to be criminal aliens is probably 5%. Yet people are being picked up on the way to work, with taxpayers shelling out up to $200 a day for months at a time. There’s a better use for taxpayer money — locking up hard-working men and women isn’t it.
Numbers of the Week
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120 – There are only 120 emergency shelter beds in Norman to serve the roughly 240 people experiencing homelessness. [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development]
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79.7% – Nearly 4 in 5 teachers in Oklahoma (79.7%) stayed at the same school from one year to the next in 2024. An additional 9.4% moved to another school within the district or state, while 10.9% did not return to teaching in the Oklahoma public school system. [Oklahoma Educational Quality and Accountability]
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825,720 – The estimated number of Oklahomans experiencing food insecurity in 2024. Oklahoma’s food insecurity rate was 20.2 percent, compared with 14.4 percent nationwide. [Feeding America]
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14.4% – The percent increase in average Oklahoma electricity prices between January 2025 and January 2026, from 11.03 cents to 12.62 cents per kilowatt-hour. [U.S. Energy Information Administration]
- 319,000 – Estimated number of Oklahoma children who would have benefited from a fully refundable Child Tax Credit, but who were left out of the 2025 reconciliation bill’s $2,200 credit expansion. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
What We’re Reading
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Homeless Camp Sweeps Can Harm Health. Some Cities Are Trying a New Way.: Local governments across the U.S. have increasingly turned to sweeps and arrests as the number of people living on the nation’s streets exploded by nearly 60% between 2015 and 2024. But growing evidence shows that forcing people to move can harm their health. That’s prompting several cities to try a new approach in some cases, which experts on homelessness say can get rid of encampments, while also protecting the health of people living there. [Tradeoffs]
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What Teachers Are Telling Us, and What Policymakers Should Do About It: Lessons from a Gallup Survey and the Commission on the American Workforce: Teachers are burning out, working side jobs, and need higher pay. Beyond these common understandings about the profession, the latest survey from Gallup and BPC’s Teaching for Tomorrow study brings nuance and evidence to the conversation. Many of the survey’s findings diagnose issues that underscore the need for a national talent strategy as recommended by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on the American Workforce. Among the recommendations, the Commission offers policy solutions to remedy these issues and meet the needs of educators to ensure they stick around for tomorrow. [Bipartisan Policy Institute]
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Map the Meal Gap 2026: Food insecurity remains widespread across the United States, affecting every county and congressional district, and is at its highest level in a decade. Children, older adults, rural communities, Southern states, and many communities of color face especially high rates, reflecting persistent disparities in income, opportunity, and access to resources. High food and household costs continue to strain family budgets, while many people experiencing food insecurity earn too much to qualify for SNAP. Ongoing economic pressures and cuts to federal nutrition assistance could deepen these challenges, underscoring the need for strong public policies, accessible nutrition programs, and continued data collection to ensure communities can respond effectively. [Feeding America]
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A Plan for American Electricity Affordability: Electricity costs are rising faster than many other basic expenses, leaving more households behind on bills, facing shutoffs, and spending a growing share of their income on energy. Prices are being driven by costly natural gas, aging grid infrastructure, climate disasters, and rapidly increasing demand from AI data centers, while federal barriers to new clean energy projects threaten to make the problem worse. Proposals to address the crisis include accelerating the construction of affordable energy and grid infrastructure, providing federal support to states that freeze or reduce residential rates, and requiring data centers to pay their fair share of the infrastructure costs they create. [Center for American Progress]
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A Perfect Storm: How Federal Policy Changes Are Increasing Economic Insecurity for America’s Families: The passage of H.R. 1 makes the U.S. government’s priorities clear: instead of supporting families, it is cutting the programs many families depend on. Alongside the 2026 federal budget reconciliation bill, newly released work requirements, and major agency-level changes, these policy choices are pushing millions of people into increasingly precarious conditions. The effects are already devastating — and as more implementation requirements take effect, the harm is likely to grow. This report examines how recent policy changes in healthcare, food assistance, housing, and immigration are affecting families and communities, while also outlining what to expect in the coming year. [Institute for Policy Studies]
