Tulsa Woman Says Immigration Law Tears Families Apart

By Dan Bewley and Terry Hood, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Some Oklahoma Republican legislators want the make the state's immigration law even stronger. One provision would be to keep children born to illegal immigrants from becoming U.S. citizens.

But a Tulsa woman says they're ignoring Oklahomans whose families are torn apart by a law that she says already goes too far.

LaChelle Wells-Martinez and her husband Fernando have been married for three years. But they've known each other since 2004, and Fernando is the only father figure LaChelle's daughter has ever known.

"Good husband, good dad, awesome provider," said LaChelle Wells-Martinez, Tulsa resident.

Wells-Martinez admits her husband came to the country illegally to provide for his family in his native Mexico. He never got his citizenship and in 2007 - four days after the state's immigration law was passed - he was pulled over on a traffic violation and eventually, voluntarily left the United States.

"This has taken me to so many depths of my soul that I didn't know existed," Wells-Martinez said.

Wells-Martinez agrees the country needs to reform immigration, but she says Oklahoma's tough law and the recent law passed in Arizona have gone too far. She says the laws tear families apart and lead to racial profiling.

"It's just, really, legalized racism," she said.

Oklahoma City Republican and State Representative Mike Christian disagrees.

"Again, that's just a red herring that the apologists will throw out there to try and get the conversation to stop," Christian said.

Oklahoma City Republican Mike Christian says Oklahoma's immigration laws actually need to be stronger. He'd like to see the state confiscate vehicles driven by illegals, make it a felony for illegals to possess a gun, and - in what he calls the 'Holy Grail' of immigration reform - prevent children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants from becoming citizens.

"We're one of, if not the only, country in the world that allows someone to come to this country illegally - the minute they have a child that child becomes a citizen," Christian said. "If you went to another country, say in Mexico, my wife and I had a child would that child be a Mexican citizen?"

Wells-Martinez feels politicians are ignoring families and says she's left with only one thing to do.

"I pray a lot – everyday," said LaChelle Wells-Martinez, whose husband left the United States after a traffic stop discovered he was not a U.S. citizen.

Wells-Martinez is working to have her husband come back into the country legally and become a U.S. citizen.

Representative Christian admits the 14th Amendment would make any law preventing children from becoming citizens very difficult but says he has lawyers looking over the issue.