OK lawmaker reconsiders language as bill targeting Latino community sparks controversy

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — A bill filed for this upcoming session is already gaining a lot of pushback.

Many are saying the legislation is outright racist.

Rep. JJ Humphrey filed HB 3133, which is specifically aimed at the Latino community.

While his goal was to crack down on cartel activity, many don't think he's taking the right approach.

"We have seen a flood of illegal immigrants come over our borders bringing human trafficking, illegal drugs, but especially fentanyl," Rep. Humphrey.

His bill spells out that if someone is of "Hispanic descent," a member of a street gang and has been convicted of a gang-related offense, they should be deemed terrorists and have all property, vehicles and money potentially taken.

On the other side of the aisle and with an impactful voice to the Latino community, Sen. Brooks is opposed to the legislation.

"Considering that the author who filed this is the same person who proposed to issue hunting licenses for Sasquatches, unfortunately for better or for worse it wasn't super surprising that he would jump on this bandwagon as well," he said.

Sen. Brooks is the Chair of the Legislative Latino Caucus, and one of his issues with the legislation is that it directly targets a group of people for racial reasons.

"To single group us out and to have the law treat people differently based on their race or ethnicity only creates creates divide," Sen. Brooks said.

Rep. Humphrey said he specified the group based off the crime he was hoping to target.

"People are making a big issue out of the fact that I used the word Hispanic, I probably did use that when I was originally writing this because it is Hispanic gangs that are mainly what we're talking about, the Mexican cartels two of them," he said.

After hearing that he offended many of our Latino neighbors, friends and family members with his bill, he decided to take a second look at the language.

"I will go back to change that language to say undocumented, here illegally, something like that," Rep. Humphrey said.

On the other hand, Sen. Brooks doesn't think that will put a bandage on a bill he finds completely unconstitutional.

"I think this bill is fatally flawed, and I don't know if there's going to be much of a way to change it," Sen. Brooks said.