IMMIGRATION WATCH : Short Change

With California reeling from its worst budget crisis since the Great Depression, this state didn’t need another economic hit. But it just got one, from Washington, D.C.

Once more California is being badly shortchanged by Congress and the Bush Administration on the financial aid it needs--and was promised--to help assimilate legal immigrants under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. Gov. Pete Wilson and a unified (for once!) California congressional delegation had sought $1.1 billion in immigrant aid, not an unreasonable amount considering that 60% of the immigrants legalized under the 1986 law’s amnesty live in California.

But last week a House-Senate conference committee cut this state’s immigrant aid appropriation to only $325 million. That’s better than nothing--which is what California got from the feds for immigrant aid last year--but it’s barely a dent in the need. And it’s frustrating when considering that most other states don’t even take their full share of immigrant aid money.

To their credit, Californians in Congress did get one concession in the current immigrant aid budget. Starting in 1995, any surplus immigrant aid funds will go to states such as California that need more than they initially got.

But for now, every Californian in Congress should remember this hard lesson as evidence of the need to hang together as a state delegation on issues that transcend ideology, like helping immigrants become Americans.

That’s Americans, Washington, not just Californians. How about a little more help next time?