Battle over Prop. 187: U.S. debates new California law aimed at illegal immigration

0 Comments | Current Events, Nov 28, 1994

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Is it good - or bad - for America? Is it fair - or unfair? Will it help Americans live together - or will it create more racial divisions?

Just about everyone has strong opinions about Proposition 187, a new law passed by California voters on November 8. Proposition 187 deals with how California treats illegal immigrants - people who live in this country illegally. Under Proposition 187, illegal immigrants will no longer receive services such as welfare, food stamps, and non-emergency health care.

Proposition 187 also forbids the children of illegal immigrants from receiving public schooling, from kindergarten to state colleges. In addition, the new law requires California officials to report all suspected illegal aliens to federal authorities.

To its supporters, Proposition 187 is a law badly needed to help stop the flood of people entering California illegally, mostly from Mexico. Supporters feel that taxpayers should not have to pay for people illegally in the United States and, in a time of few jobs, give up jobs to illegal workers.

To its opponents, Proposition 187 unfairly punishes innocent children by barring them from school, turns school teachers into immigration police, and promotes crime and disease by barring illegal immigrants from welfare and health care. Many opponents also see the law as racist - aimed at people who are Hispanic and people who belong to other ethnic minorities.

The new law, which was hotly debated before the election, was passed on Election Day by by a vote of 59 percent for to 41 percent against.

California governor Pete Wilson, who strongly supports Proposition 187, announced one day after the election that he was putting the new law into effect. Demonstrators filled streets in Los Angeles, angrily denouncing the law. In the courts, opponents argued that Proposition 187 is unconstitutional - that it violates rights in the U.S. Constitution. A judge ordered that the law not be put into effect until hearings are held to determine whether it is constitutional.

A National Problem

The hot debate over Proposition 187 has created interest all over the country because it is designed to address what many now see as a national problem. Millions of people cross U.S. borders illegally every year. In 1993, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) arrested more than 1 million people who tried to enter the United States illegally. Experts believe that as many as two million more succeeded in joining the 3.5 to 5 million people now already living illegally in the United States.

Most illegal immigrants enter the United States at the southern border, which stretches nearly 2,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. A large part of that long border is formed by the Rio Grande - a shallow river that is easy to cross. In cities, the border is marked by customs booths cutting across highways and steel fences on city outskirts. Those who cannot climb the fence, dig tunnels under the fence. On highways, people gather together and rush through - believing that U.S. border guards cannot arrest them all.

Today California has an estimated 1.6 million illegal immigrants, most from Mexico, but many also from China and other Asian countries. Other states, such as Texas, New York, and Florida, also have of illegal immigrants.

Why They Come

Why do so many people illegally enter the United States each year? Immigration experts say that most come because they are looking for a better life. So strong is the lure of El Norte (the north), as the United States is known in Latin America, that millions of people are willing to risk an illegal border crossing to find work.

Even working only a few days a week at a low-paying job in the United States, often pays more than work they can find in their own country.

In 1986, Congress passed the Immigration Control and Reform Act. This law granted amnesty forgiveness of a crime) to illegal immigrants who had lived continuously in the United States since 1982. But the law also imposed stiff penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Congress hoped that those penalties would force employers to not hire illegal immigrants, thus drying up the job market for illegals. Today, experts agree that that law has not worked. Illegal immigration to the United States is at an all-time high.

Supporters of Proposition 187, like Governor Wilson, hope that the new law, by denying benefits to illegal immigrants, will make life in the United States less attractive to those who want to cross the border illegally. Wilson says that California is going broke paying for services used by illegal immigants.

"Enough is enough," says William King, executive vice president of Americans Against Illegal Immigration.

Opponents disagree. They believe people will continue to enter the United States so long as poverty and unemployment remain serious problems in Mexico and in other countries.

Jack Kemp, former Congressman and federal official under President Bush, believes that Proposition 187 win divide people along ethnic lines, and not solve the illegal immigration problem. He also feels that laws similar to Proposition 187 will soon be introduced in other states.