Former OSBI agent on HB 4156: Nothing in the bill justifiies an arrest for impermissible occupation
After reading Oklahoma House Bill 4156, it took me back to 1973 and a practice I abandoned a long time ago when I was a rookie police officer with the Oklahoma City Police Department. Back then, it was standard procedure when encountering a Hispanic male to assume he was not a “citizen or national” of the United States if he could not speak English. I arrested him without any charge other than being an undocumented immigrant if he could not produce a “green card.” I placed him in the city jail on an “immigration hold.” Later, I found out that everyone I had arrested was released in a few days because the U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization Service never sent anyone from Dallas to pick them up.
While making one such arrest, I was challenged by my supervisor who pointed out that I had no “probable cause” to arrest the individual. I countered that he could not produce a green card upon request and his failure to produce a green card was evidence he was undocumented. I felt justified in making the arrest until my supervisor asked to see my green card. Initially, I received his question with indignation because it was obvious that I was not an undocumented immigrant and I did not need to produce a green card. But then it occurred to me the point he was making. The “burden of proof” was on me to show he was undocumented and he had no burden to prove that he was a citizen or national of the United States.
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After that conversation with my supervisor, I never made another immigration hold arrest. I came to realize the arrests I made were in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution which granted the right of “people” to be “secure in their persons” against unreasonable seizures. Also, Oklahoma law restricted my power of arrest to misdemeanors committed in my presence, arrests with a warrant or probable cause to believe a felony was committed. I had none of those when making the arrests for immigration hold.
When reading HB 4156, I find nothing in the bill that would have justified my making an arrest for impermissible occupation back in 1973 or today. The bill does not articulate the probable cause or evidence necessary to prove that a person is an undocumented immigrant and willfully and without permission entered and remained in the state of Oklahoma without having first obtained legal authorization to enter the United States. I would not have been justified in making a lawful arrest because of the lack of articulable probable cause and evidence of the offense. Also, there are no safeguards in the bill that would have prevented me from unlawfully arresting anyone I chose for impermissible occupation if I had been willing to violate the Fourth Amendment and the laws of the state of Oklahoma.
Tommy L. Johnson is a retired special agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Former OSBI agent weighs in on Oklahoma anti-immigrant bill
