Experts Weigh Ballot Measure’s Possible Impact

One muggy August evening in 1978, Maria Garcia tearfully kissed her two young daughters goodby in a small, Mexican town and boarded a bus bound for Tijuana. In the scraggly brush on the outskirts of the city, a station wagon waited to whisk her over the border and into the United States. Within hours, she was on a plane to Chicago to join her husband.

“Our plan,” she said, “was to stay long enough to save some money, then go back home.” But despite several attempts to make ends meet in Mexico, the Garcias--whose real names are not used because they risk deportation if identified--were never able to return to their native land. Today, home is Huntington Beach, where the couple eke out a meager existence--she cleaning houses, he working as a mechanic’s helper.

They now have four children, all born in Mexico, who live with them. Ages 12 to 19, all have attended Orange County public schools.

Now the lives they have established here face a new threat: Proposition 187, which, if implemented, would put Garcia’s children among the 400,000 youngsters statewide whom critics say would be kicked out of public school because they are in the country illegally.

Though it flies in the face of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that grants all children, regardless of citizenship, the right to a public education, Proposition 187 would require school officials to verify the citizenship of all children. Those found to be undocumented would be expelled and reported to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The radical set of measures contained in Proposition 187--many of which also conflict with existing federal law--would exclude illegal immigrants from non-emergency medical care, welfare and other publicly funded social services. The new law also would require officials at hospitals and social service agencies to report to the INS anyone they suspect of being illegal immigrants.

Backers of the measure--also known as the “Save Our State” or “SOS” initiative--assert that their ultimate goal is to save billions of taxpayer dollars and spark a national revolution in immigration policy. While opponents agree that something must be done to curb illegal immigration, they argue that the initiative is a shortsighted, misguided solution that will create far more problems than it solves.

Garcia disputes the notion that the measure would discourage more illegal immigrants from coming to the United States.

“All it will end up doing is splitting families,” she said. “A lot of the men will come over and work and the children will stay behind.”

In Orange County alone, thousands of children would be drummed out of school if the initiative were implemented, opponents say. Left to roam the streets, they contend, these uneducated youngsters would likely compound the juvenile crime problem.

The county’s top public health official fear that the initiative would discourage illegal immigrants from seeking treatment for infectious diseases--a public health hazard for the entire community.

Some social services agencies receiving most of their funding from private donations defiantly assert that they would refuse to comply with the reporting requirement, even if it meant losing the state grants they also depend on.

“The impact is just scary,” says Gladys Hall-Kessler, president of the Santa Ana Educators Assn., which represents 2,000 members. “I hope Californians wake up and vote ‘no.’ ”

But even if Proposition 187 passes, it will have to overcome major legal obstacles before it ever becomes state law. In a 1982 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court held that every child, regardless of citizenship, is entitled to a free public education. For Proposition 187 to be implemented, the high court would have to reverse that decision.

Orange County public school officials say implementing Proposition 187 would be an administrative nightmare.

By Jan. 1, 1995, schools would be required to begin verifying the citizenship of students enrolling for the first time. By Jan. 1, 1996, all students and their parents would have to be checked.

At Santa Ana Unified, Orange County’s largest school district, that would entail determining the legal status of nearly 50,000 children in kindergarten through 12th grade. In Los Angeles, the task would be even more daunting. There are 640,000 children in the Los Angeles Unified School District alone.

The initiative does not specify how officials are to determine citizenship, stating only that they should exclude anyone whom they “reasonably suspect” of being an illegal immigrant.

“How are we supposed to verify citizenship?” asks Hall-Kessler, who has taught elementary school in Santa Ana for 20 years. “The only thing teachers can tell you is how many fluent English speakers are in their class. But that doesn’t tell you anything. There are people born in Santa Ana who don’t speak a word of English.

“And what do they think is going to become of all these kids turned out of the schools?” Hall-Kessler added.

Statewide, an estimated 500,000 of the 5.3 million children in grades K-12 are illegal immigrants, according to the INS. The state Senate’s Office of Research puts the figure at 400,000, and the initiative’s authors say it is closer to 300,000. The initiative would exclude all of them from public school, for a savings, of $1.2 billion, backers argue.

Other supporters speculate that if the measure passes and is implemented, children already in the school system might be allowed to remain in the schools, but newcomers would be screened out and excluded.

“Right now, any kid who is 5 can get a 12-year education for free, just by getting over here,” says Harold Ezell, chairman of Americans Against Illegal Immigration and a former western regional commissioner for the INS. “We can’t afford it, and it’s not fair.”

Garcia, however, is angered by depictions of immigrants as a drain on the economy.

She says she and her husband work hard to earn a living for their family. Although they are not legal residents, they pay income tax.

The initiative, she said, “is very unjust. We do the most difficult jobs that other people don’t want to do for the least amount of money.”

Immigrants rights groups also note other hardships the initiative could cause.

What would happen, they ask, to illegal immigrant parents whose children are U.S. citizens by virtue of having been born here? Initiative supporters say parents could choose between taking their children with them or leaving them here with a guardian.

But opponents say that is not a realistic solution.

“The likelihood that these families would leave the country is minimal,” says Rigoberto Rodriguez, vice president of the board of directors of the Orange County Alliance for Immigrant Rights. “These families already have a life here. They have roots here.”

The provision that would prohibit hospitals and clinics from treating illegal immigrants, except in emergencies, would put doctors in a “horrible” ethical and moral position, according to Orange County Medical Assn. President Peter Anderson.

“Number one, I can’t treat you, and number two, I’m going to report you to the INS? I can’t imagine,” said Anderson, who is chief of emergency medicine at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center. “They never taught us that in medical school.”

Illegal immigrants are already ineligible for MediCal, the medical program for the poor, except to pay for emergencies or prenatal care. Under Proposition 187, prenatal care would no longer be covered.

Dr. Hugh Stallworth, the county’s director of public health, fears that the initiative would hinder his efforts to reduce the spread of contagious diseases.

It is largely through the services offered at the county’s 14 medical clinics that public health officials keep tabs on the overall health of the population, he said. The county offers immunizations, prenatal care and programs to fight sexually transmitted diseases.

“With many of the infectious diseases, they don’t cause a lot of pain. So people can live and function even if they don’t feel that great,” Stallworth said. “A lot of people would rather feel a little bit sick rather than risk confrontation with the INS.”

However, Stallworth says, contagious diseases would still be spread. “You can’t just tell bacteria to stay away from those people,” Stallworth. “Bacteria don’t know any nationality.”

But Proposition 187 supporters argue that illegal immigration is itself largely to blame for many of the state’s public health problems.

“Doctors are saying ‘we have to treat people or we’ll have a resurgence of TB,’ but where do they think it’s all coming from?” asks Bill King, a retired border patrol agent from Mission Viejo who is one of the local backers of the initiative. “I’ve seen people apprehended coming over the border with TB, hepatitis, and leprosy.”

If the SOS measure passes, some local social services agencies assert that they will refuse to question their clients or report them to the INS.

“We think that we would have to give up (public funds) because we feel it’s unconscionable to accept anything that would deny children polio vaccine and mothers prenatal care,” says Jean Forbath, a board member of Share Our Selves, a Costa Mesa nonprofit agency that runs a food bank and free medical and dental clinics.

The organization serves 20,000 clients a month, Forbath said. About 85% of its funding comes from private donations, with the rest from the state and county, she said.

Far removed from the rhetoric on both sides, the Garcias remain optimistic that the initiative will fail, despite polls suggesting it may be approved by a two-to-one margin.

“In my relationships with people here I have found them to be very compassionate,” Maria Garcia said. “This is just politics, the work of people who want to stay in power.”