(NewsNation) — Oklahoma is giving Donald Trump's plan of conducting mass deportations a boost.
Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt announced "Operation Guardian" last month in a bid to deport incarcerated immigrants illegally in the U.S. back to their country of origin.
Stitt has appointed Public Safety Commissioner Tim Tipton to lead the operation.
“The safety of every Oklahoman is my top priority. We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to ensure criminals who are here illegally don’t bring harm to Oklahomans,” Tipton said in the release last month.
"Oklahoma taxpayers are paying to keep illegal immigrants incarcerated because the Biden administration has refused to enforce the law. This must end now."
Stitt says Oklahoma state's prisons right now are currently holding around 526 immigrants illegally in the U.S., costing it around $32,000 in taxpayer funds.
"We're going to walk through exactly who they are to make sure we are serving justice, but we're also getting these folks back to the Trump administration to do their job and get them out of the country," Stitt told NewsNation.
Tipton told NewsNation that migrants who have committed serious crimes like rape and murder will finish out that state sentence before being turned over to ICE custody.
He also told NewsNation exclusively that they plan to expand "Operation Guardian" to target migrants who have committed crimes, have served their state sentences and been released and are still in the state of Oklahoma. The plan is to detain those individuals and hand them over to ICE custody.
Gov. Stitt told NewsNation that when it comes to migrants in the state not committing crimes and paying taxes, those individuals would not be targeted.
"People that are trying to chase the American dream, that are paying taxes, that are part of the community; we want to make sure that they have a way to work here legally," Stitt added.
