Deformed Reform

POSTED BY ARNOLD HAMILTON

If there were an official Oklahoma State Legislature dictionary, you'd no doubt find this synonym for the word phony: House Bill 1804.

See also, bogus, pandering.

HB1804, by Sen. James Williamson, R-Tulsa, and Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, is the so-called immigration reform package that senators approved 41-6. It plays to a noisy group of nativists who think it's really going to do something to slow -- if not reverse -- the growth of undocumented newcomers.

Think it's going to really stop employers from hiring anyone who provides authentic-looking identifying documents? Think it's going to lead to mass firings? Think it's going to lead to mass deportations?

Think again.

All it's going to do is put local and state law enforcement in the time-consuming business of chasing down an endless well of "tips" from yokels worried about "illegal fer-en-ers" in their midst.

It's also a great tool to get even with your enemies. All you'd have to do is sick the local sheriff or police on a business competitor and they could be tied up in knots for who-knows-how-long, answering trumped up charges.

The most meaningless provision in the package?

Businesses can't be hammered if they're caught with undocumented employees -- so long as they participate in the federal Basic Pilot program, which is designed to validate through a national database the identifying information submitted by prospective employees.

You need to know this about Basic Pilot: It only determines whether a Social Security number is valid. It doesn't tell you is whether the Social Security number is being used at multiple locations.

In other words, you don't know whether the number really is the prospective employee's -- or whether it's stolen.

Nationally, there are myriad examples of the same Social Security number being used at multiple locations, at the same time.

Those promoting immigration reform would have you believe the Basic Pilot provision is going to help ensure that businesses do not hire undocumented workers.

Baloney.

It just provides them legal cover to keep doing what they're doing.

As I've argued before, the nation's immigration problems are in need of a federal solution, not a patchwork quilt of xenophobic state "reforms." The President is right on this issue: America needs a guest worker program.

Evidently, the nativists are so riled over the immigrants in their midst that some even threatened senators before the vote.

Sen. Johnnie Crutchfield, D-Ardmore, said one unidentified nativist called him a "bastard" and demanded he vote for the package.

"I've been here nine years," said Crutchfield. "They could have at least said 'Sen. Bastard.'"

The package now returns to the House for review of Senate amendments. The House is expected to sign off, meaning this mess soon will end up on Gov. Brad Henry's desk, barring something unexpected.

Will he have the good sense to veto? Could a veto be sustained in either House?

Not likely.

When this law becomes Oklahoma's shame -- with widespread reports of racial profiling and other problems -- remember the pandering politicians who knuckled under and voted for it.