In this video, attorney Lorena Rivas critiques Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt’s announcement of “Operation Guardian,” a program that pledges to accelerate the deportation of undocumented immigrants held in state correctional facilities. Rivas explains that the initiative largely repackages existing practices—such as rapid repatriation for non‑violent drug offenses and the use of the 287(g) partnership that hands detainees over to ICE—which have been in place under previous administrations, including Obama, Biden, and Trump. She argues the announcement is a political move to generate fear, rather than a novel policy shift. Rivas then addresses the immigrant community directly, urging them not to be intimidated, to avoid arrests, and to continue contributing positively to their neighborhoods, emphasizing that they are neighbors, not criminals.
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Today, the governor of the state of Oklahoma, Governor Kevin Stitt, announced their own operation to help in the deportation of illegal immigrants, or he's calling this Operation Guardian. And what it entails is something that's already taking place. So he stated that he's going to help the federal government rapidly deport individuals who are detained in the Department of Corrections for the state of Oklahoma. So wow, great. This is already happening during every presidential administration, including Obama and Biden. People who are in state correction facilities are deported. Further, if these individuals commit nonviolent offenses like drug crimes, they are eligible to be deported even faster. This is called rapid repat. The other thing that he mentioned in this Operation Guardian is that he is going to help assist in the 287(g) program, which is detains, immigrants, undocumented immigrants in state detention facilities and will be passing them on rapidly to immigration for them to be deported. This is nothing new. This already occurs when somebody's arrested in the state of Oklahoma. It's a very red state, very Republican-led state. In most of these towns, immigration is contacted and where they decide whether this person is picked up, detained, um, and processed to to be in front of an immigration judge and have their hearing, their immigration court hearing. So everything that Kevin Stitt announced today is nothing new. But just like the President Trump administration, Governor Kevin Stitt took a page to make this like he's doing something that's unheard of, when again, the state of Oklahoma has already been doing this. They've already been cooperating with federal, the federal immigration ICE, and they've already been deporting people and people have already been deported, but nothing more just to create more fear and chaos in our community, which unfortunately, you know, it's becoming effective. But to my immigrant community members, what I'm asking, telling you is please do not fear. This is something that's already happened. And of course, point of advice is to avoid being arrested, avoid committing criminal offenses., and just do what we do here. We come here to work, raise family, and help contribute to their community. So just keep doing that because that's what we're here. We're not criminals. We are your neighbors. We are your parents, your children, your siblings. Um, we are your community members. Um, so just keep doing that and keep showing that we are not criminals here.
