Oklahoma Launches Pilot Program to Deport Criminal Immigrants Ahead of Trump’s Presidency
Oklahoma is setting the stage for a new initiative aimed at supporting President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation strategy by turning over criminal immigrants in state prisons to federal authorities. Governor Kevin Stitt announced the program on Friday, which will target over 500 convicted illegal immigrants currently incarcerated in Oklahoma. The plan is to transfer them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody once Trump takes office in January 2025, helping to jump-start the administration’s aggressive deportation policies.
Governor Stitt expressed his eagerness to collaborate with Trump on the plan, noting that Oklahoma is ready to be the first state to take action. “We want to be the first state that works with President Trump,” Stitt said in a phone interview. “Right now, we have over 500 people incarcerated in Oklahoma who have broken the law, who are criminals, and they also are illegal. We would love to get them out of the state of Oklahoma, out of the country.”
As of Friday, 526 criminal illegal immigrants are housed in Oklahoma’s prisons, costing the state approximately $36,000 per day. Governor Stitt hopes to expedite their deportation by turning them over to ICE before they complete their sentences. He believes this move aligns with public sentiment, asserting, “I don’t know how any Oklahoman would argue with me. I don’t think Americans would think this is not very reasonable.”
However, the proposal has raised concerns among some crime victims. Naida Henao, head of the Network for Victim Recovery of DC, expressed unease about the potential impact on victims of crime. “What we have found, generally speaking, is that folks actually feel less safe when folks are deported,” Henao explained. Survivors may feel uncertain about the whereabouts of deported criminals, as they lose access to information about the individual’s location and potential reentry into the U.S.
Oklahoma’s initiative aligns with Trump’s campaign pledge to target deportations of criminal immigrants and those with outstanding deportation orders. The state’s program, called Operation Guardian, will be overseen by Public Safety Commissioner Tim Tipton. Tipton aims to collaborate with local and state law enforcement to transfer illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds to ICE custody and work to identify others with criminal histories within Oklahoma.
Tipton emphasized the state’s commitment to protecting its citizens from what he sees as a growing criminal element linked to open border policies. “Oklahoma has found itself in circumstances that the current open border policy has flooded our state with a transnational criminal element that our citizens should not be exposed to,” Tipton stated. If successful, the pilot program could serve as a model for other states to adopt.
The program, however, faces logistical challenges. It remains unclear whether ICE has sufficient detention space to accommodate the 500-plus inmates while their deportation cases are processed. Typically, individuals arrested by ICE are held in custody pending decisions by federal immigration judges.
The plan could also offer significant cost savings for Oklahoma, potentially reducing the expense of housing illegal immigrants in state prisons by more than $1 million per month if all 526 inmates are transferred to federal custody.
“We’re not asking for more ICE agents,” Governor Stitt explained. “We’re just saying, ‘When we catch criminal activity, we’re going to turn them over to the feds,’ and we know a Trump administration is going to do the right thing and deport them.”
With the new administration set to take office in 2025, this initiative marks an early step in Trump’s broader deportation strategy, which could reshape the enforcement of immigration laws across the U.S.