Court Delays Chamber-Opposed Oklahoma Immigration Law

The U.S. Chamber won a legal victory on June 4 when a U.S. District Court judge postponed portions of the law's enforcement, and deemed them "substantially likely" to be unconstitutional.

The Oklahoma law requires that employers doing business with the state use the federal government's voluntary and error-riddled Basic Pilot Program, or E-Verify, to determine the legal status of their workers. The National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC) filed a lawsuit in February objecting to the possibility of harsh civil penalties—including increased tax rates, the loss of contracts, and exposure to litigation—for state contractors that "should have known" that an employee was unauthorized to work.

NCLC challenged the provision on the grounds that the law's enforcement provisions usurp the federal government's jurisdiction over immigration law.

"Conflicting state and local immigration laws are overwhelming American businesses," says NCLC executive vice president Robin Conrad. "It's time for Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform."

A final judgment in Chamber of Commerce of the United States et al. v. Henry et al. is still pending.

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