The country, Morrissette said, "is big enough to follow the law. If you work, pay taxes and go by the rules, then you should be given a reasonable chance to become a U.S. citizen."

Responding to Terrill's complaints of opposition groups filing suit over the bill, Morrissette said he hoped the courts "would do something" about the bill. "I suspect they will. I suspect the federal court will take some action."

Echoing Terrill, Carol Helm, a representative of Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Now, said Oklahoma was facing an "invasion" by illegal aliens.

"Our group is non-partisan," she said. "The thing that brings us together is one issue: the illegal alien invasion."

The states, she said, have every right to enforce immigration laws.

"Why are these laws not being enforced? There are many, many laws on the books that are being overlooked."

The forum's fourth speaker, University of Tulsa professor Linda Allegro, said the bill has generated many unanswered questions.

"We don't have all the answers yet. We don't know if it will be more costly to enforce this law."

Allegro said other issues have been absent from the debate over the new law.

"We have to look at how the global economy is reshaping labor availability," she said. "The North American Free Trade Agreement has created a paradox, a borderless movement of goods, services and capital and, at the same time, more limited immigration."

And HB 1804 had made things worse by creating "racial divisions."

"It's contributed to more tension between whites and Hispanics; where the former are viewed as racists and the later as criminal," she said.

The Oklahoma Political Science Association annual conference continues through today at the State Capitol building.

M. Scott Carter 366-3545 scarter@normantranscript.com