Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Kevin Stitt voiced his strong support for President-elect Trump’s immigration plans, pledging to assist in deporting undocumented immigrants within his state.
During an appearance on Fox News, Stitt declared that preparations were already underway, with the state’s commissioner of public safety being tasked to lead these efforts, starting with Oklahoma’s prison system.
According to Stitt, state records show that over 500 inmates are undocumented immigrants.
“We want to be ready Day one in office — when President Trump takes office. I put our commissioner of public safety in charge and I said, ‘Listen, everybody that’s in our prisons that are here illegally, that are breaking our laws, we believe in public safety,’” he told the outlet.
“We want to protect the citizens of Oklahoma and we want to be ready to get them out of our state and out of our country before you see another one of the issues that affected Georgia with the Laken Riley case.”
Stitt criticized President Biden for what he called a four-year-long border crisis, which, he claimed, had led to a surge in illegal immigration.
“The first thing we’re going to focus on are the people that have committed crimes. I think that’s what President Trump’s going to do,” he remarked.
“And then once you secure the border, which Biden has failed to do for the last four years, and that’s why the American people overwhelmingly supported President Trump because they know he’s going to secure the border Day one.”
The governor indicated his preference for structured immigration policies, highlighting the value of legal pathways for those pursuing the American dream.
“If there’s people that are trying to do the right thing, chasing the American dream, I believe we should match employers with employees and turn from education visas if you’re getting an engineering degree from one of our universities to get them into the workforce,” he commented. “But we’re going to start with the illegal activity.”
President-elect Trump has promised an aggressive stance on immigration, claiming his administration will oversee the “largest deportation effort in American history” as soon as he assumes office.
Stitt voiced full agreement, commenting, “With an executive order, all President Trump has to do is go back to his policies of remain in Mexico and just instruct our Border Patrol to do their job. It’s already a federal law that you cannot enter our country.”
Meanwhile, opposition to Trump’s plans is brewing in cities like Denver, where Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston has taken a defiant stance.
Johnston pledged to obstruct federal immigration enforcement within his city, vowing to uphold its sanctuary policies.
“We’re not going to sell out those values to anyone,” Johnston asserted when questioned by the Denverite following remarks reported by Fox News. “We’re not going to be bullied into changing them.”
Johnston further likened potential resistance to infamous moments in history, stating, “More than us having DPD stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there. It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun,” referencing the 1989 demonstrations in China.
“You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. You don’t want to mess with them,” he warned.
The mayor described plans to mobilize not only Denver police officers but also “community volunteers” to counteract possible interventions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
