Senators, Public Debate Wilson Immigration Plan

At a special hearing on the impact of immigration on California taxpayers, some lawmakers contended Thursday that Gov. Pete Wilson’s Administration has done a poor job of reducing the state’s financial burden caused by illegal immigrants.

However, a number of viewers who watched the hearing live on cable television and who called in on toll-free lines were supportive of the governor’s proposals to get tough on illegal immigrants by cutting off citizenship and public education to their children and limiting the health care available to them.

The hearing by the Senate Select Committee on the Pacific Rim gave an early, fractured glimpse at public and legislative reaction to Wilson’s call for severe restrictions in federal law and the U.S. Constitution to deal with the costs of the state’s growing immigrant population.

Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), who chairs the committee and is one of the chief critics of Wilson’s stance on U.S. immigration policy, contended that other states have done a better job of minimizing the financial burden of legal and illegal immigrants.

He argued that California has failed to take advantage of a 1977 treaty between the United States and Mexico that allows undocumented felons to be sent back to Mexico to serve their terms at their request. That would save the state from $22,000 to $35,000 per year for each Mexican national who chooses to go home, Torres said.

Torres, using figures obtained from the Mexican government, said Texas has returned more than 4,000 felons to Mexico under the terms of the treaty, but California has returned only eight. The Wilson Administration disputed Torres’ figures, saying that Texas has returned only 350 prisoners and none in the past two years.

Wilson has called for the government of Mexico to pick up the cost of Mexican nationals serving in California prisons, a policy that would require a new agreement between the two countries. (The governor in the past has also called on the U.S. government to pick up the cost of housing immigrant inmates.)

Although he supported several Wilson proposals to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the state, Torres criticized the governor for failing to use strict enforcement of California labor laws to curtail the use of illegal workers.

“The promise and assurance of a job is the prime motivator that drives immigration into California,” Torres said.

The interactive hearing, with phoned-in comments of viewers, was carried live over the California Channel, which can be picked up by 2.6 million cable television subscribers.

Torres has argued that the Republican governor’s outspoken position on immigration is timed to help Wilson’s reelection efforts. Torres and Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) called for a “balanced approach” to the problems caused by immigration, but both took swipes at Wilson--Polanco complaining of those “who have fanned the flames of intolerance.”

Several callers supported Wilson’s proposals.

“We have an invasion going on and it has to stop,” said a Bakersfield man.

An Oakland woman who described herself as a volunteer welfare rights worker complained that because of federal law, “I’m able to do more for illegal aliens than for citizens of the United States.”

A man from Escondido stated that “illegal immigrants by thumbing their noses at our laws are encouraging lawlessness. We are two or three years behind Germany.” He was apparently referring to that nation’s large population of documented foreign workers, who have recently been targets of violence by neo-Nazis and skinheads.