"You can't pack up 12 million people on buses and transport them out of the country," he said. "There is not a police force in the state that's going to enforce this law, and even if they did, ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] won't come and get them. It's a moot point."

One of the bill's provisions prevents undocumented students from receiving scholarships and financial aid for higher education, but allows the regents to preserve its policy giving undocumented students access to in-state tuition.

Some believe the expense to higher education may be detrimental to Oklahoma college students.

"It's a red herring, and will be used as a wedge issue by the bill's authors as we move into an election year," said Wilson. "I can tell you the result of this provision has cost the state roughly $145,000, which is chump change."

Rep. Mike Brown, D-Tahlequah, also voted for the measure, but would have liked to have seen some ideas he presented in a separate bill included. Like Wilson, he feels the law has no real muscle.

"It works if you want to put funding toward it," said Brown. "But we don't have the money to spend on real enforcement. The federal government is supposed to take care of the borders, and even the federal law has failed. U.S. Sen. [Tom] Coburn has even said as much. The federal law is putting the burden on the states, which can't afford it."

Brown believes the passage of the bill has created a larger problem when it comes to documenting workers.

"With all the fear surrounding the law, it's driven illegals underground," said Brown. "In a similar measure I proposed, I had provisions to actually make sure we have documents on workers. We don't have that process in this law. In the same piece of legislation I proposed, I had provisions to curtail underage drinking, credit card theft and identity theft."

According to a summary of H.B. 1804 compiled by Tulsa's Community Action Project, no funding was set aside by the Legislature to establish a fraudulent documents identification unit to investigate and apprehend those involved in the sale or distribution of fake IDs.

"The Commissioner of Public Safety has expressed his eagerness to create such a program to address the full range of problems associated with fraudulent documents, particularly I.D. theft," states the summary.

Brown believes Oklahoma needs some type of limited guest-worker program that would provide the necessary documentation to track immigrant workers.

"If the federal government would do its job, you wouldn't have a workforce shortage; we'd have a way to document people who want to come here and work," said Brown. "Now what we have is cheap, illegal labor, which is creating an atmosphere of animosity between those who are here legally and those who are coming here illegally to work."

Wilson indicated things would be different if people were crossing into the U.S. via its northern border.

"You can bet if we had Canadians crossing illegally, this wouldn't be an issue," said Wilson. "I hate to see this turn into a racial issue, but there it is."