Lionel Ramos
State Government ReporterLionel Ramos covers state government at KOSU. He joined the station in January 2024 after covering race and equity as a Report For America corps member at Oklahoma Watch, a nonprofit investigative newsroom in Oklahoma City.
Born into the circus, Ramos traveled across the country in an RV with his family for the first half of his life. He eventually landed in San Antonio, Texas, where he attended high school and community college before transferring to Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. He holds a bachelor's degree in English with a focus on Creative Writing from Texas State, where he covered local and student government for the school's newspaper, The University Star.
At Oklahoma Watch, Ramos reported statewide on the rising political capital of Latinos in Oklahoma, the resettlement of Afghan refugees, the stakes for Indigenous Oklahomans in the Supreme Court's 2023 Brackeen v. Haaland decision, unemployment, housing, and veterans issues.
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As a crisis continues on the U.S. Southern Border, Oklahoma lawmakers are among counterparts from about a dozen states taking things into their own hands. Their efforts generated backlash from the Latino immigrant community. -
The governor said it’s not his intent to see families in Oklahoma separated, which some long-established members of the Latino community fear could happen as a result of the broad language in the measure. -
House Bill 4156 was introduced by the majority floor leader Rep. Jon Echols, R–Oklahoma City. The measure creates a new crime in Oklahoma called “impermissible occupation,” aimed at addressing increased illegal immigration into the state. -
Nation's first nonbinary state lawmaker reflects on public service, rhetoric in Oklahoma legislatureOklahoma state representative Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, is one of just a few nonbinary lawmakers in the U.S. — a distinction that comes with prominence and pressure. -
House and Senate leadership unveiled details on a proposal punishing people for entering and remaining in the state without legal permission Thursday, and they want to create a new crime to try to combat unauthorized immigration. -
The path of totality completely covered McCurtain County, while partially going over Choctaw, Bryan, Atoka, Pushmataha, Latimer and LeFlore Counties. -
Oklahoma lawmakers are one step closer to sending a controversial immigration bill to the governor’s desk. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a measure that targets state-funded resources supporting Oklahomans in the country illegally. -
Oklahoma House Republicans want more tax cuts, while Senate Republican leadership has left them out of their budget after slashing the grocery tax last month. -
The measure threatens to cut state funds to entities that “knowingly” serve Oklahomans without legal immigration status. And while it explicitly exempts healthcare providers, law enforcement and public schools, Hays failed to provide an example of any organization actively violating his measure that he would like to stop. -
The governor’s office argues Attorney General Gentner Drummond “badly misapplied” the state’s dual office holding laws in a recent opinion that prompted resignations of two Stitt cabinet officials.
