Commentary : PERSPECTIVES ON PROPOSITION 187 : Shame on Them, Picking on Children : Banning illegal immigrants and their U.S.-born offspring from school and clinics is malicious and foolhardy.

Perhaps the ugliest aspect of the current wave of immigrant-bashing is the tendency to lash out at the innocent children of undocumented immigrants. Proposition 187, which proponents call the “Save Our State” initiative, would exclude undocumented children from public schools and require these schools to verify the legal status of not only all children enrolled but also their parents; the school authorities would be required to report those “suspected” of illegal status. The proposal would also exclude undocumented immigrants, including children, from any nonemergency health care provided by any facility receiving public funds, apparently even if the immigrant is paying for the care privately.

Proposition 187 thus would deprive children of prenatal and preventive health care, including needed immunizations, and the basic education essential to becoming productive members of society.

The unfairness of punishing children for circumstances beyond their control is obvious enough: The injustice of such policies led the U.S. Supreme Court to declare in Plyler vs. Doe (1982) that depriving undocumented children of free access to public schools violated their right to “the equal protection of the laws” guaranteed by the Constitution.

Even if Proposition 187 were not unconstitutional, it would still be foolish and simplistic public policy. Proponents claim that Proposition 187 would reduce undocumented immigration, as if the undocumented are drawn here in any significant measure by our public services rather than overwhelmingly by the prospect of employment. The truth is that powerful economic forces in the labor market drive illegal immigration, and Proposition 187 would do little to discourage such immigration from countries that offer precious little hope of a better life.

The undocumented and their children would remain among us in spite of Proposition 187, but with less education and health care. Therein lies the most perverse result of Proposition 187: It would create an underclass of illiterate and impoverished residents, deprived of basic skills, including English-language skills, necessary for the integration of immigrant children into our society and our work force. This underclass would create new risks to public health and new breeding grounds for crime and thereby threaten the welfare of all Californians.

Proponents tout Proposition 187 as a means of saving the public treasury from the costs related to undocumented immigrants, but don’t expect any big windfall soon. Unless we close schools and fire teachers, the exclusion of the undocumented from public schools will not bring any significant savings quickly.

As a long-term fiscal measure, Proposition 187 is shortsighted. Public expenditures on education and prenatal and other health-care services for our children, alien or citizen, represent a wise investment that will earn a handsome return when these children grow up to be skilled employees and taxpayers. Those with higher incomes will pay more in taxes; an illiterate underclass will pay little and impose heavy social costs. An underclass denied preventive health care will require more emergency medical care, which Proposition 187 would continue to provide to undocumented immigrants. Thus, Proposition 187 would burden the California treasury by eroding its tax base and misallocating scarce resources.

Proposition 187 punishes not just immigrant children but also present and future U.S. citizens. Undocumented parents will face deportation if they seek to give their children, even those born as citizens in the United States, medical care or an education. Even those children who were not U.S.-born will probably grow up here and eventually acquire legal status. Proposition 187 would deprive all these children of the inculcation of civic values and the basic education essential to a literate and informed electorate. Moreover, because Proposition 187 will impoverish so many California residents, including future citizens who will have access to the broadest array of entitlement programs, it will drain the public treasury, not save it.

Proposition 187 is, in short, malevolent and misguided. Regrettably, we will continue to see such malicious proposals as long as irresponsible politicians continue to pander to the worst instincts in the California electorate, blaming politically powerless groups like undocumented immigrants for California’s social and economic problems. One can only hope that California voters will have the wisdom and the decency to reject them.