I don’t know what is going on in Oklahoma. But, the population of Oklahoma is roughly equal to that of the city of Los Angeles. (L.A. County is much more populous as it includes the cities of Burbank, Pasadena, Long Beach, etc.) Plus, OK is a more homogeneous population than in L.A. Therefore, whatever deportations (self or otherwise)are going on in OK is so small in terms of the overall problem that it cannot be used as an example of what can can be achieved nationwide.
Deporting 12 million or getting them to leave would be the same as trying to remove every person in OK, MO and KS. That’s not going to happen. We’d better find an acceptable solution to this problem, such as a path to residency, not citizenship.
The current level of illegal immigration took decades to build up to where it is. It may take that much time to get the numbers back down to where they were. Legalization will only make the problem permanent. There will be no going back after that.
Why not? There are ways to do this over a period of time. There are solutions, none of which have been enacted. We all know why.
That may be the case, but that does not preclude the possibility that it could be done if we wanted to do it.
Look at Dwight Eisenhower's policy.