New Immigration Law Affects OKC Hispanic Community (Dec 21, 2007)
For several decades, immigrants from Latin America have been lured to the Oklahoma City area by construction and service industry jobs as well as the cheap cost of living. But this weekend and over the past few weekends, things have been a little quieter than they used to be in the Hispanic neighborhood of Capitol Hill. That’s because of House Bill 1804, the new, anti-illegal immigration law that went into effect in Oklahoma last month. It makes it a felony for anyone to transport, conceal or house undocumented immigrants, and people on both sides of the issue have called it one of the strictest measures of its type in the country. The law is still fairly new, so there aren’t yet many hard statistics about its effects. But anecdotal evidence suggests it’s already had an enormous impact.

Randy King, the Publisher of the Spanish language newspaper El Nacional, gives us a walking tour of Capitol Hill and introduces us to several business owners including Elias Pando of Tortilleria Lupita; Max Gaona (pictured above), who runs the Mexican sports bar and chicken restaurant Maxpollo and Kay Garner, owner of Budget Foods.

WEB EXTRAS:
View a slideshow of photos of the people and places you heard in this report

Read the Community Action Project’s detailed analysis of the provisions of the new law (PDF)

See The Oklahoman’s extensive coverage of the state's new immigration law

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