Congressmen Endorse Immigrant Initiative : Politics: Measure that would deny services to illegal migrants needs 385,000 signatures to qualify. Critics charge the proposal is racist.

Two local congressmen on Tuesday endorsed a proposed state initiative to require state and local agencies to report suspected illegal immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, deny them social services and access to a public education, and make it a felony to manufacture or use false citizenship documents.

Speaking at a Newport Beach news conference which also featured the co-authors of the proposed initiative, Reps. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said it was time for state and local officials to take a stand on a problem that has aggravated California’s economic woes.

Packard, who succeeded in amending federal disaster relief legislation to deny long-term assistance to illegal immigrants, said that “nothing will stop them” from continuing to stream across the border as long as federal government policies remain unchanged.

“We must cut off the attraction through cutting funds,” he said. “It’s simply unfair to taxpayers.” Current policies, he said, are “schizophrenic” because federal laws prohibit illegal immigration, yet those who break those laws are entitled to benefits such as a public education and medical treatment in publicly funded hospitals.

The “SOS” (Save Our State) initiative, being circulated since January, needs 385,000 signatures by April 22 to be placed on the November state ballot, said co-author Harold Ezell, a former western regional commissioner of the INS. Alan Nelson, the initiative’s other author and head of the INS from 1982 to 1989, was also present at the news conference.

The organizing committee is seeking to collect a half million signatures, Ezell said. “It is our belief we’re going to have a landslide on this thing.” So far, about 3,000 signatures have been obtained, but Ezell said signatures were now being collected at the rate of 2,000 a day.

The initiative, if passed, would:

* Exclude illegal immigrants from all publicly funded schools in California, from kindergarten through college. Ineligible students already enrolled would be given a transition period to return to their native country.

* Exclude illegal immigrants from public health care except in emergencies.

* Make it a felony, punishable by a $750,000 fine and five years in prison, to make, sell or use false citizenship documents.

* Require law enforcement officers as well as employees of many state and local agencies to report any suspected illegal immigrants to the state attorney general and to the INS.

Leaders of immigrant rights groups expressed outrage over the proposed initiative.

“I would like to know when persecution of the hardest-working and lowest-paid people I know is going to stop,” said Becky Esparza, former chair of the Orange County Coalition for Immigration Rights. “I understand that the economy is on the downswing . . . but scapegoating people not responsible for what is happening, I don’t understand that.”

She said the initiative is “targeting a specific race of people”--immigrants from Mexico.

But Rohrabacher said “those who suggest this is racist are trying to obfuscate honest discussion of the problem. You will find the vast majority of Mexican-Americans will support the initiative.”

Msgr. Jaime Soto, the Roman Catholic Vicar for the Hispanic Community, said, “Anti-immigrant sentiments always accompany--or is the consequence of--economic hard times.”

Soto acknowledged that some legal immigrants may favor stemming the tide of illegal immigration, but this was because they “suffer from historical amnesia and forget their own past. That doesn’t justify this initiative.

“Political leaders must accept some responsibility for their sins of omission,” he added. “These angry reactions against immigrants . . . are displaced anxiety. Unfortunately, they have chosen to cater to and exploit people’s fears instead of showing courage and insight.”