Wilson Scales Back Request for U.S. Aid for Immigrants

Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday sharply scaled back his request for federal funds to help California provide health and social services to immigrants and their families.

Wilson, taking advice that congressional Democrats have been offering for several weeks, said the state will seek only what the federal government owes California under current law--or about half of the $1.45 billion he asked for in January to help balance the $51-billion state budget he proposed for the next fiscal year.

The Republican governor’s acknowledgment means that he and the Legislature probably will have to find another $800 million in budget cuts or tax increases to make up for what Wilson had counted on getting from President Clinton and Congress.

Wilson made the disclosure after a 45-minute meeting here with California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The two have pledged to work together to secure as much federal money for California as possible. But Feinstein warned Wilson earlier that his request was overly optimistic.

The problem was that Wilson had lumped together obligations the federal government has to the states with responsibilities he believes should be borne by Washington, but which by law are now state burdens.

Wilson acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that it would be tough to get majorities in Congress to change the law to benefit mainly the nation’s five largest states, which have the biggest problem serving immigrants.

“The point I think Sen. Feinstein and members of Congress have been making is that the other states can’t be counted on to be sympathetic to the needs of California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois,” Wilson said.

Feinstein, in a separate interview, said she persuaded Wilson that the state could not legitimately claim it was owed money that the federal government has never pledged to pay.

“You’re not going to get funds you’re not authorized to get,” she said. “I think he (Wilson) understands that.”

Russell Gould, Wilson’s health and welfare secretary, said the five states now are seeking about $2 billion for health and social services and prisons and another $300 million for education.

For California’s state budget, that would mean about $678 million to help defray the cost of services to recently legalized immigrants and refugees, and the cost of imprisoning undocumented immigrants convicted of felonies. Another $312 million under the new request would go to counties, and $174 million would go to the schools, but neither amount would go directly to help balance the state budget.

Gould said California no longer is counting on $700 million that Wilson had said the federal government owed it for providing health services to undocumented immigrants and welfare assistance for their American-born children, who automatically become citizens.

He said the five largest states and the Clinton Administration would study the issue further to see if the law should be changed to shift more of that burden to the federal government.

“We’re not throwing in the towel at all,” Gould said. “We’re still fighting for what we think is our fair share.” But he added: “We’re saying, ‘Let’s go through this process step by step.’ ”

Times staff writer Glenn Bunting contributed to this story.