Immigration Initiative Tops Signature Goal

With a strong push from the Republican Party, supporters of a proposal to bar illegal immigrants in California from public hospitals and schools announced Monday that they had enough signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot.

Sponsors of the sweeping “Save Our State” measure wheeled into election offices boxes stuffed with more than 600,000 signatures--more than the 384,974 required to put the initiative before voters.

The signatures will be checked and if the measure qualifies, it is certain to raise the intensity of an immigration debate that has become the subject of TV ads in the governor’s race and mailers in legislative contests throughout the state.

Immigrant rights advocates are scrambling to come up with a strategy in response, including possibly airing TV ads promoting the positive side of immigration and highlighting what critics call the intolerant and xenophobic nature of the ballot measure.

The initiative--among the most stringent proposals put forth in the increasingly contentious immigration debate--is sponsored by Alan Nelson, Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner under President Ronald Reagan, and Harold Ezell, INS chief for the western states from 1983-89.

If passed, the initiative would require schools to verify the immigration status of pupils and expel students whose parents cannot prove their legal status. Schools also would be required to report to law enforcement agencies the names of parents they believe are in the country illegally.

It would eliminate prenatal care to women who have no papers. Illegal immigrants could receive emergency care, but hospital officials would be required to report “persons who are apparent illegal aliens.”

Gov. Pete Wilson, who has made unlawful immigration a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, has said that illegal immigrants and their U.S.-born children absorb $3 billion in education, health care, prison and welfare costs. Critics say the numbers ignore the economic activity and tax revenue generated by illegal immigrants.

But Wilson has not taken a position on the initiative, which has been endorsed by the state GOP. His campaign manager, George Gorton, said in a letter to initiative proponents that it is “highly likely” that the governor will campaign for the measure next fall should it make the ballot.

A Times Poll in March found that 62% of respondents favor the proposed initiative, including a majority of Democrats. The Democratic Party has not taken a position on the initiative.

“It appears to be a knee-jerk reaction to ‘Yes, let’s do something about this problem,’ ” said Arturo Vargas, vice president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “I don’t think people yet have the benefit of an analysis of how onerous this kind of Big Brother initiative is.”

Vargas said the initiative could lead to widespread discrimination against legal immigrants and U.S. citizens of Latino descent. “If you’re brown, you’re going to be suspect in this state.”

The initiative drive got off to a slow start--petitions have been in circulation since January--but received a big boost from the state Republican Party, which spent $75,000 to send out petitions.

State GOP Chairman Tirso del Junco, a Cuban immigrant, said he “takes care of a lot of illegal immigrants” in his medical practice, and “they are taking jobs away from legal immigrants.”

Supporters of the initiative boasted of strong grass-roots support, but they hired a professional signature-gathering firm.

The measure’s educational restrictions seem to contradict a landmark 1982 Supreme Court decision (Plyler vs. Doe), which held that public schools must accept children regardless of immigration status. Initiative proponents acknowledge their desire to revisit that Supreme Court ruling, which passed 5 to 4.

Illegal immigrants do not qualify for welfare and many other public benefit programs but those who are indigent can receive free emergency and prenatal care at public hospitals.