My adopted home state of Oklahoma has now become the focal point in the battle against illegal immigration. During the last legislative session, one of the very few high points was the passage of a law enacting tougher penalties against those who employ illegal immigrants. In addition to tougher penalties against employers, under the new law illegals will be denied government assistance. The law makes sense to most Oklahomans, and is not unreasonable, yet it is now before the docket of the United States Supreme Court, being challenged by Hispanic advocates who don’t even live in Oklahoma.

Why does Oklahoma even care about illegals? It isn’t a border state, after all. The illegal immigration invasion isn’t confined to border states anymore; it is now a nationwide issue. Here in Oklahoma, it is estimated that the unofficial population of Tulsa (official population 382,000) is closer to 500,000, with illegals making up the difference. Many local contractors have gone out of business, as they cannot compete with those that hire the illegals. Tulsa’s crime rate has skyrocketed, with a sizable percentage of the crimes being committed by illegals. Signs identifying government buildings in Tulsa are now in both English and Spanish. At the current rate of growth, illegals may soon outnumber Indians, which is mind-boggling considering that Oklahoma at one time was Indian Territory. Local and state leaders have become so concerned about the problem, and the lack of federal response, that they took it upon their own initiative to pass a state law addressing the problem (locally known as 1804).

Gallingly, a Hispanic advocate from D.C. has decided to challenge Oklahoma’s law, even though he doesn’t even live here! And that is why Oklahoma suddenly finds itself thrust front and center on the immigration debate. Unfortunately, we are being portrayed as a bunch of uneducated, xenophobic hicks, the reddest of the red states, the buckle of the "Bible Belt", no good racist bigots.

I will concede that there are probably a few who fits the stereotypes, but for the overwhelming majority of Oklahomans, the issue has nothing to do with bigotry and everything to do with fairness. If I were of Native American decent, I would be especially annoyed. Here are peoples who had to give up centuries of culture, language, etc., and adopt the white man’s ways and white man’s language, on their own lands, yet these newcomers who snuck in from a distant land refuse to assimilate and expect everyone else to accommodate them! As a white American, I know that I am annoyed when I live in the middle of the country and see official documents written in Spanish, when I know that my German ancestors had to learn to speak English when they immigrated here generations ago; for my ancestors, it was either learn English or starve, and they came over here legally! I don’t know about anyone else, but it bothers me when I see people who live and work here in Oklahoma, in the middle of the country, flying Mexican flags; I fly my American flag proudly, and wouldn’t dream of flying a German or an Irish (the other branch of my lineage) flag, because I am an American and I live in America and I am damned proud of it! If people think I am a bigot or a racist because I don’t approve of bilingualism and flying Mexican flags and celebrating Mexican holidays, well, then I guess I am a bigot.

It is frustrating to hard-working, God-fearing, law-abiding citizens when you see the system being abused. It’s bad enough when our own home-grown people suckle off of the government teat; we don’t need people from other countries sneaking in to join them. I get a chuckle when I hear the illegal advocates complain that that illegals shouldn’t be treated like criminals. How else, then, should they be treated? They broke the law, and that means that they are criminals. If you don’t want to be treated as a criminal, don’t break the law; it is as simple as that.

I will probably get a lot of flack from Republicans for what I am about to say, but the truth needs to be told – Ronald Reagan was an idiot. (Many Republicans think of Reagan as a diety, almost like a cult, and now I have gone and committed sacrilege….) Reagan should never ever have granted amnesty to the illegals during his administration. Stupid, stupid, stupid! That didn’t stop the problem, it only made it worse, by sending the message to others that you will be rewarded for sneaking into our country illegally. (Forget visas and green cards; just sneak across the border and you are in!) I cannot think of nay other country where you can walk across a desert or ford a river and the people and the government will prostrate themselves before you like you are royalty. Let’s say you walked across the desert into, say, Iran, do you think that the Iranians would give you free food, health care, education, and housing, and would be willing to speak English just for you? I don’t think so. What is really pathetic, is that even the Mexicans won’t. No, I think that we are pretty much unique in the world in our willingness to prostitute ourselves. You see, it all has to do with money.

Why was the "great" Ronald Reagan so eager to grant amnesty? Money, and lots of it. Not for him per se, but for his friends and supporters in Big Business. Big Business loves illegals. Why hire Americans when you have a slave labor pool. Illegals won’t demand a livable wage like Americans, as the paltry wages they get paid are a king’s ransom back home. And, illegals won’t complain about poor working conditions like Americans will; after all, you can’t deport Americans.

Big Business is not the only group profiting handsomely from illegal immigration. You have the coyotes who charge steep rates to get people across, and you have corrupt government officials who are getting paid off to look the other way. And let’s not forget the advocates. The advocates are getting handsomely rich off of the suckers who are donating to the "cause"; after all, the advocates must be paid, you know. (Have you ever noticed how you never see a destitute advocate? Of course, if you could name your own price, wouldn’t you maximize your income as well?) No illegals means no cause which means that the advocates’ gravy train goes away.

The tragedy in this mess is that our own greed will be our undoing. Do you honestly think that every illegal is a good upstanding person who just wants to work to support the family back home? Hog wash. Sure, there are many illegals who are trying to find a better life. But, there are many whose goals are dark and sinister and evil. What’s to stop, say, terrorists from entering the country illegally? Absolutely nothing. That’s the scary part.

Something must be done before something terribly bad happens that results in the loss of thousands of lives. Perhaps Oklahoma’s law isn’t the answer, but at least it we are talking about the issue.

If the new discussion culminates in a real solution, then the Oklahoma Legislature will have achieved far more with one law than it could have ever envisioned.