(TheRedWire.com) – The Biden administration has threatened a lawsuit against another GOP-led state that has taken matters into its own hands in cracking down on illegal immigration.
The threat comes after the Department of Justice filed lawsuits against two other Republican-led states over their anti-illegal immigration bills. The DOJ wrote to Oklahoma’s Governor Kevin Stitt and the State Attorney General Gentner Drummond over HB 4156 revealing its intention to sue.
The state legislation criminalizes being in the state illegally and allows local enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants in the state and force them to leave Oklahoma within 72 hours after being released from custody or being convicted.
Stitt signed the law this month and it will go into effect on July 1.
HB 4156 is similar to laws Texas and Iowa passed. Both states have since been the target of DOJ lawsuits, that argue the states’ law infringes on federal authority over immigration law and enforcement.
Currently, the Texas law, Bill 4, has been placed on hold while the lawsuit is ongoing.
In the letter to Oklahoma’s officials, Brian Boynton, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, writes that the state’s law is “preempted by federal law” therefore it’s in violation of the Constitution.
Boynton adds that Oklahoma’s law is similar to Bill 4 from Texas, “which has been preliminary enjoined.”
Boynton argues that Congress has already implemented a “comprehensive scheme” that governs entry and reentry into the United States by noncitizens and includes “penalties for unlawful entry and reentry.”
Boynton then suggests that HB 4156 would develop a state immigration scheme that imposes criminal penalties on a state level for federal prohibition of unlawful entry and reentry, which “intrudes” on federal government laws.
Boynton concludes by declaring the DOJ’s intention to file the lawsuit against Oklahoma unless the state “agrees to refrain from enforcing the law.”
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