CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : Wilson, Brown Clash on Immigration : Democrat blasts Proposition 187, while the governor announces a telephone campaign to pressure Clinton.

The candidates for governor sparred sharply Tuesday on the emotional and politically powerful turf of illegal immigration. Democratic nominee Kathleen Brown derided Gov. Pete Wilson’s support for a controversial anti-illegal-immigrant initiative as a “cheap political trick” while Wilson turned his fire on President Clinton for failing to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into California as he has into Florida and Texas.

In San Francisco, state Treasurer Brown cautioned Californians not to let fear dictate their views on illegal immigration, and broadened her plan for stemming it.

Speaking to about 350 members of the Commonwealth Club, Brown for the first time called for the closure of two highway checkpoints in northern San Diego County. She said she favored redeploying the 200 Border Patrol agents who staff those checkpoints and hiring more than 1,000 new agents, to ultimately double the current law enforcement presence at the Mexican border.

“Let me be clear: . . . Our policies must be tough. Our borders must be controlled. And our laws must be enforced,” said Brown, who said she has urged Clinton to expedite the payment of immigration-related funds earmarked in the newly signed federal crime bill.

“But let me make one other thing clear: Our policies must not just be politically expedient. . . . They must be fair.”

With that, the 48-year-old Democrat scathingly criticized Proposition 187, which would deny illegal immigrants public education and government-funded health care. Brown pointedly compared the initiative to shameful moments in California history, such as the Japanese internment camps of the 1940s.

And she denounced Wilson, who has indicated his support for the measure, for “scapegoating” and for airing “inflammatory” television commercials.

“I will tell you, it is really difficult when you are running against someone who will do anything and stop at nothing, who runs pictures on television of people running hither and yon,” she said, referring to one Wilson ad that showed Mexicans sprinting across the border.

Wilson, she continued, is “fanning fears. I’ve tried not to do that.”

For his part, the Republican governor came out swinging at Clinton, escalating his letter-writing campaign against the President’s immigration policies by announcing an effort to besiege the White House with telephone calls from Californians angry about illegal immigration.

Beginning today, the Wilson campaign will air 10-second ads asking Californians to call Clinton to register their views.

“The people of California want something done about illegal immigration and they want it done now,” Wilson said at a Los Angeles press conference.

The ad critically compares the President’s response to the illegal immigration of Cuban refugees into Florida and of Mexican nationals into Texas with what Wilson decried as his inaction in dealing with the flow of illegal immigrants into California.

To keep Cubans from overwhelming Florida’s coast, the President sent U.S. military officials to intercept rafting refugees and has interned them in the Guantanamo Bay naval station along with Haitians who also sought refuge in Florida. In recent days, the White House and Cuban leader Fidel Castro came to an agreement that will increase the level of legal immigration to the United States but is meant to stop the illegal flow.

The Clinton Administration also mounted an effort in El Paso in which a beefed-up Border Patrol presence created a virtual human wall against illegal immigration in that formerly popular destination. In the first six months of operation along the 20-mile line, illegal immigration fell 73%, according to Border Patrol officials.

Wilson argued that California deserved as much attention from the President.

“The problem here is far worse than in Florida, but we have seen from the White House nothing but promises,” Wilson said.

The ad asking Californians to call Clinton includes video of Wilson and the telephone number of the White House switchboard. It pointedly does not include a reference to Brown, but Wilson clearly meant to tar her by association. The airing of the ad is timed to Clinton’s Sunday visit to California for a Brown fund-raiser.

Last week, in a Brown fund-raiser in San Francisco, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton characterized Wilson as a nagging pen pal because he has so often sent missives to the President about California problems. Wilson archly defended the practice Tuesday.

“The White House seems to have stopped opening my mail,” he said. “Perhaps it’s because the First Lady objects to my writing her husband so often. . . . I will quit writing letters if in fact they do something about the problem.”

The governor said he did not include Brown in the ad because “Kathleen Brown has no jurisdiction” over immigration.

The subject matter has clear importance in the governor’s race. A Los Angeles Times Poll published Tuesday found that by a margin of 49%-22%, voters think that Wilson can better handle the problems associated with illegal immigration.

In her speech, Brown said that she, like Wilson, supports suing the federal government for federal immigration dollars that are owed to California. But she noted that Wilson, as a senator, voted for federal mandates he now opposes.

“Eight years ago he was a supporter of federal mandates,” Brown said. “Now, in a tough reelection campaign, he’s an election-year plaintiff.”

Brown reiterated several proposals that she has made in the past, including increasing penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal workers, creating tamper-proof Social Security cards, charging a $1 border crossing toll and deporting illegal felons.

“Do the crime, serve the time, on your own country’s dime,” she said of the last proposal, which prompted brief applause. “It’s very simple.”

Brown also said she understood why Proposition 187 sounded to many people like a simple solution to illegal immigration. But she warned that it would have dire consequences.

“On the face of it, denying all these public services absolutely is reasonable,” she said. “But when you talk about throwing kids out on the streets, let me tell you what I see. I see more kids on the corner. I see more uneducated youngsters. I see more gangs. I see more guns. I see more graffiti. . . . And I see it costing me more money.”

Most alarming, she said, is that Proposition 187 seeks to require health care personnel, educators and law enforcement authorities to report anyone they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant to federal authorities.

“What it fails to tell you is exactly how you’re supposed to determine that reasonable suspicion. Is it by the color of one’s skin? Is it by the accent? The last name maybe? Maybe the way you dress?” she said. “It doesn’t tell you how to do it. What it does do is create a Big Brother that would only make matters worse.”