Wilson Tears Into Brown on Issue of Illegal Immigration

In his first full-scale attack on the Democratic front-runner in next year’s election for governor, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson lashed out Monday at state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, accusing her of being uninformed and out of touch with Californians on the issue of illegal immigration.

Mixing a dose of personal pique with a detailed discussion of the two candidates’ policy differences, Wilson signaled that the campaign for the state’s highest office now is in full swing.

Brown, speaking to reporters separately, said she stood by remarks she made last week in a widely touted speech on immigration. But a top campaign aide later backed away from one statement in the treasurer’s speech that was inconsistent with the rest of her text--and which Wilson seized upon.

Wilson’s comments came after he signed four bills to crack down on illegal immigration, including a measure to prohibit the issuance of drivers licenses to people in the country illegally.

The other laws enacted by Wilson will require proof of legal residency for state-paid job training, stiffen penalties against Medi-Cal fraud and prohibit local governments from adopting so-called sanctuary laws that prohibit police from sharing information with federal immigration authorities.

Wilson also vetoed legislation that would have established “citizenship centers” to help immigrants become U.S. citizens.

After a short statement about the bills he signed, Wilson took questions from reporters. He was ready when asked to comment on Brown’s speech laying out her position on immigration and characterizing recent Wilson proposals as “barbaric.” Polls show Brown leading state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi among the undeclared candidates for the Democratic nomination next year and defeating Wilson in a hypothetical matchup.

Wilson said he was “disappointed by the ugly and intemperate tone” of Brown’s remarks, adding: “So far as I know, it is not a hate crime to disagree with Kathleen Brown.”

The governor zeroed in on Brown’s statement that illegal immigrants are “wrongly seen as a cause” of deteriorating conditions in California employment, education, health care and personal safety.

After reading aloud a text of Brown’s comment, Wilson said he found it remarkable that Brown believes that illegal immigrants are not contributing to the state’s ills.

“She made clear once again that she simply does not understand the problem, that she does not have a grasp of it,” Wilson said.

California, the governor said, is spending an estimated $1 billion on education and nearly $800 million on emergency health care for illegal immigrants, and 13% of the felons in state prison were in California illegally at the time they committed their crimes.

The money now going to educate the children of illegal immigrants, he said, could be used to expand his Healthy Start program to 750 school sites, put a computer on the desk of every fifth-grader, add 67,000 4-year-olds to the preschool rolls, and offer 12.5 million more hours of tutoring and counseling for troubled youths.

Brown, in a speech to business and professional leaders in Los Angeles last week, agreed with Wilson that the federal government should absorb the full cost of providing services to immigrants.

But she said jobs--not government benefits--are the main lure for foreigners, and she proposed stricter enforcement of sanctions against employers who hire immigrants illegally. She also endorsed a $1 border toll to pay for immigration programs and said the military should be used to back up the Border Patrol.

Brown used a good part of her speech to extol the contributions of immigrants and to warn against racial hatred that she said would be “dangerous, shameful and wrong.”

Roy Behr, policy director for Brown’s campaign, said the treasurer was seeking to strike a balance between “identifying, recognizing and dealing with the problem” while at the same time guarding against an overreaction.

Behr backpedaled from Brown’s statement that illegal immigration was “wrongly seen as a cause” of the litany of problems she cited.

“Of course, as she recognized throughout the speech, illegal immigration does contribute to those problems,” Behr said. “But to hear some speak of it, illegal immigration was the sole cause.”