According to officials who conducted the study, Oklahoma's economic losses will build over the next few years, before a slight recovery in the state gross product as new workers move into the state. Officials said the study is consistent with similar analyses performed in Texas. Hispanic leaders have estimated that more than 20,000 undocumented workers, mostly in the Tulsa area, fled the state ahead of the bill taking effect.

Terrill questioned the study's conclusions after a cursory review of it. He said his legislation was geared toward "an attrition through enforcement approach," with no mass exodus of undocumented workers expected. He said, however, that the intent of the bill was to have undocumented workers leave Oklahoma for other states and that there is antidotal evidence that is happening. "We still have no hard numbers," he said.

Terrill called the report "one of the best reports that money can buy to take shots at House Bill 1804."

"This debate is about a whole lot more than just economics," he said. "It is about defending the rule of law, it is about upholding our state and national sovereignty and it's also about the immorality of employing cheap, illegal labor."

The lawmaker said an anti-illegal immigration group has estimated Oklahoma loses more than $200 million in state revenue through education, medical and other benefits paid to illegal workers and their families.Terrill said the OBA report does not account for those benefits in projecting economic losses to the state.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Oklahoma statute as interfering with federal immigration law.

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