Brown Backs Immigrant Rights Principles

State Treasurer Kathleen Brown generally aligned herself Saturday with immigration principles advocated by leading California Latino lawmakers, but the gubernatorial hopeful deviated on the thorny issue of the military’s role in policing the nation’s borders.

While opposing direct military patrols, Brown said she favors the use of National Guard and other troops as logistic support--supplying transportation, communications and other needs--for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the civilian enforcement agency. Such a move, she said, would free some U.S. Border Patrol agents from peripheral tasks.

Brown, an active participant in Sacramento’s heated immigration debate, spoke after meeting in Los Angeles with advocates and Latino officeholders who have formed Proponents for Responsible Immigration Debate and Education (PRIDE), a coalition that seeks to counter immigrant-bashing and shape discussions of the topic. Afterward, Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez said Brown’s comments prompted him to reconsider his endorsement of her for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

The issue of military involvement in immigration matters is extremely sensitive in Latino communities.

Federal law bars the military from performing civilian law enforcement tasks such as arresting illegal immigrants because of their residence status. But National Guard troops and other soldiers have been utilized increasingly in recent years to erect boundary fences, improve border-area roads and assist with surveillance.

Keeping immigration enforcement in civilian hands is one of the coalition’s four base-line principles. Other tenets support the right of immigrants to medical care and education, while upholding citizenship guarantees for everyone born in the United States--including the children of illegal immigrants. The coalition also encourages immigrants to sign up for U.S. citizenship and stresses the need to provide economic aid and abet democracy in immigrant homelands.

Brown enthusiastically backed three of the coalition’s four precepts, while departing on the question of military border backup. Her Democratic gubernatorial opponent, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, has endorsed the four principles.