This year’s presidential race has often focused on illegal immigration with a particular emphasis on the perceived “catch and release” policy of the Biden administration, which has been tied to violent crimes carried out by individuals released into the general population.

One of the most high-profile cases involves two Venezuelan men, Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, who have been charged with murder in the killing of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston.

Martinez-Rangel was apprehended near El Paso by the U.S. Border Patrol on March 14 while Ramos was apprehended on May 28, but both were released with a notice to appear in court in the future. Nungaray was murdered on June 17.

Similarly, Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old Maryland mother of five, was murdered on Aug. 5, 2023, after leaving home for a run. Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, a 23-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was arrested nearly a year later on June 14, 2024, at a bar in Tulsa.

Law enforcement officials found Hernandez had illegally entered the United States in February 2023. At that time, he already faced an arrest warrant issued in January 2023 for the murder of a woman in El Salvador. He is believed to have also assaulted a nine-year-old girl and her mother in Los Angeles in March 2023.

Hernandez was apprehended by the border patrol for unlawfully entering the United States on Jan. 19, 2023; Jan. 31, 2023; and Feb. 6, 2023. Each time he was deported, only to quickly re-enter the U.S. illegally.

In another high-profile case, 22-year-old Laken Riley, a student at the University of Georgia, was murdered while jogging on campus. Jose Antonio Ibarra has been charged with her murder. Border patrol officials had apprehended Ibarra on Sept. 8, 2022. He was paroled and released for further processing.

Oklahoma ahead of the curve on trying to address felons

Lawmakers in Oklahoma were well ahead of the national curve when it came to trying to address concerns about violent criminals who illegally enter the United States. But those efforts were derailed, in part, by members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

In 2007, state lawmakers passed House Bill 1804, which created the “Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act.”

In a section dealing with individuals arrested for felonies who are found to be illegal immigrants, HB 1804 stated, “For the purpose of determining the grant of or issuance of bond, it shall be a rebuttable presumption that a person whose citizenship status has been verified … to be a foreign national who has not been lawfully admitted to the United States is at risk of flight.”

That provision would have denied bail and release to illegal immigrants facing felony charges in Oklahoma.

When House Bill 1804 was enacted, it drew strong bipartisan support. Its co-authors included then-state Sens. Kenneth Corn and Tom Ivester, as well as then-state Reps. Scott Inman and Eric Proctor, all of whom were Democrats. Inman eventually served as leader of the House Democratic caucus.

A majority of House Democratic lawmakers joined Republicans in support of the bill, including Joe Dorman, who would later become the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nominee in 2014, and Chuck Hoskin, Sr., father of current Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr.

But Michael C. Thomas filed a petition in 2009 in the district court of Tulsa County, seeking a declaratory judgment that HB 1804 was unconstitutional.

Lower courts struck down some provisions of the law but left intact the language mandating that illegal immigrants charged with felonies be treated as flight risks.

However, when the Oklahoma Supreme Court took up the case, a majority of justices struck down the provision dealing with accused illegal-immigrant felons.

In their June 14, 2011 opinion, Oklahoma Supreme Court justices declared that the provision that “creates a presumption of flight risk” was “a special law prohibited” by the Oklahoma Constitution.

The justices declared that bail may be denied for non-capital offenses only when “the proof of guilt is evident, or the presumption great, and it must be on the grounds that no condition of release would assure the safety of the community or any person.”

Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Steven Taylor dissented, writing, “The Plaintiff has failed to overcome the strong presumption that H.B.1804 is constitutional. I would find the Plaintiff has failed to meet his burden on all issues and would therefore find H.B.1804 to be constitutional in all respects.”

Of the justices who struck down the provision mandating that illegal immigrants accused of felony offenses be presumed flight risks, five justices remain on the court today: Justices Douglas Combs, James Edmondson, Noma Gurich, Yvonne Kauger, and James Winchester.