"Oklahoma is cleaning up Biden's mess": the legal dispute between the state and the Department of Justice over an immigration law

The Department of Justice (DOJ) officially sued Oklahoma over an immigration law that will go into effect in July. The portfolio led by Merrick Garland seeks to challenge the legislation HB 4156 as contrary to the Constitution and ignores the “precedent established by the Supreme Court.” The governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, responded and attacked the Biden Administration for causing a border crisis.

The DOJ officially filed the lawsuit on Tuesday afternoon, arguing that it targets the aforementioned law to “ensure that Oklahoma adheres to the Constitution and the framework adopted by Congress for the regulation of immigration.”

What does Oklahoma’s new immigration law do?

According to Fox News, HB 4156 “makes it a state crime to be in the state illegally, gives local law enforcement the ability to arrest illegal immigrants and requires them to leave the state within 72 hours following conviction or release from custody.”

Governor Stitt recently signed the text, which will now go into effect in July. In addition, the Republican blamed the Biden administration for the need to pass the law and criticized it for trying to stop state solutions. “Not only that, but they stand in the way of states trying to protect their citizens,” he said.

“Oklahoma is cleaning up the mess of the Biden administration”

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond joined the governor in taking shots at the DOJ over the lawsuit.

“Oklahoma is exercising its concurrent and complementary power as a sovereign state to address an ongoing public crisis within its borders through appropriate legislation. Put more bluntly, Oklahoma is cleaning up the Biden Administration’s mess through entirely legal means in its own backyard – and will resolutely continue to do so by supplementing federal prohibitions with robust state penalties,” he said.

Oklahoma now joins Texas and Iowa, Republican states that passed laws to combat the Biden administration’s immigration crisis and that were also targeted by the Department of Justice.