Services necessary for the protection of life and safety, however, are available to everyone, regardless of status.

"The Department of Justice issued a final notice of order in 2001 determining the kinds of services necessary for the protection of life and safety," stated CAP Director of Public Policy David Blatt, in his report. "All the services encompassed by the DOJ's notice are explicitly exempted from any verification under H.B. 1804, so long as they deliver in-kind services and are open to all without regard to income and services."

A few such services include crisis counseling and intervention program; services relating to child protection, adult protective services, violence and abuse prevention, and victims of domestic violence or other criminal activity; short-term shelter or housing assistance for the homeless; soup kitchens, community food banks and senior nutrition programs; and medical and public health services, including treatment and prevention of diseases and injuries, and mental health.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson indicated the law does not prevent illegal immigrants from receiving basic safety services.

"I do not construe the act to preclude aliens from receiving police, fire, ambulance, transportation (including paratransit), sanitation and other regular, widely available services and, for that I am not making specifications of such programs, services or assistance," he said.

A growing concern for a number of small businesses, including nurseries and contractors, is how the law affects their employee documentation process.

According to the law, private employers may utilize a status verification system such as the Basic Pilot Program, an automated, Internet-based verification system that checks the employment authorization of newly hired employees against several federal databases, including the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. However, after July 1, 2008, those who do not choose this option can be found to have committed a "discriminatory practice" if they fire a U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien while knowingly employing an illegal immigrant to do the same job. In essence, the law provides the groundwork for wrongful termination suits should a legal citizen be fired and replaced with an illegal immigrant.

Several business owners, including construction contractors, recently attended the American Subcontractors Association of Oklahoma meeting to get advice from labor employment attorneys like Kevin Doyle concerning the new law.

Like Wilson, Doyle indicated that, although the law "sounds bad" in merely mirrors federal statutes that have always been the law.

One local nursery owner who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity said it was nearly impossible to determine legal status when hiring workers.

"You tell them you can't hire them without the appropriate documentation," he said. "They leave and come back two days later with drivers licenses and social security cards."

This situation will continue unless more money is allotted to the reinforcement of the new law, said Rep. Mike Brown, D-Tahlequah.

"There was no money set aside to develop an appropriate documentation system," said Brown. "The federal government is supposed to be responsible for securing the borders, yet they keep pushing more and more responsibility onto the states. Without money, it's not going to happen."

With regard to false documentation, H.B. 1804 is virtually toothless, stating "Subject to the availability of funds, the Department of Public Safety is instructed to establish a fraudulent documents identification unit to investigate and apprehend those involved in the sale or distribution of fraudulent identification documents."

According to the CAP report, no funding was appropriated by the Legislature for this purpose. The Commissioner of Public Safety has expressed his eagerness to create such a program in order to address the full range of problems associated with the fraudulent documents, in particular identity theft.