Anti-Illegal-Immigration Leader Advises Other States

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Oklahoma's anti-illegal-immigration law may be duplicated in other states, backers of the measure say. <br/><br/>The law, House Bill 1804, which took effect Nov. 1, bars illegal

Monday, November 12th 2007, 12:18 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Oklahoma's anti-illegal-immigration law may be duplicated in other states, backers of the measure say.

The law, House Bill 1804, which took effect Nov. 1, bars illegal immigrants from obtaining jobs or public benefits and penalizes those who harbor or transport them.

Barbara Nichols of Emporia, Kan., founder of the Kansas Immigration Reform Effort, said Kansans might tweak HB 1804 ``to better fit Kansas,'' but something akin to HB 1804 will be introduced at the next legislative session.

``Oklahoma's done all the groundwork as far as getting a bill passed,'' Nichols said. ``And so far, the challenges against 1804 have been thrown out. And that's an advantage to any other state trying to do this.''

There are more than 300 anti-illegal immigration groups in the country.

``With the success in Oklahoma, there's been just a fallout of people calling and e-mailing and wanting to know how we did it in Oklahoma,'' said Carol Helm, founder of Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Now.

In recent months, Helm has advised citizen groups from Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, California, Alabama and New Jersey about immigration enforcement campaigns.

Last week she was in Florida meeting with a congressional delegation.

She also said anti-illegal-immigration efforts are also under way in South Carolina, North Carolina, Utah, Missouri and Tennessee.

For complete coverage of Oklahoma's new immigration reform law, click here.