Prop. 187 Is Sore Subject for Illegal Immigrant Students

Her brown eyes filled with tears and she shook her head, unable to speak when asked what would happen if she were expelled from Belmont High School for being an illegal immigrant.

Roxana, a senior who is good in biology and plans to become a veterinarian, knows about Proposition 187--the measure that would forbid illegal immigrants to attend public schools. She knows that most voters support the November ballot measure and that Gov. Pete Wilson favors kicking students like her out of school.

But she refused Friday to let herself imagine what would happen to her plans for a future in Los Angeles if she were not allowed to finish school.

“I feel like this is beginning to destroy me,” said the 17-year-old, who has lived with an aunt here for eight years since both parents died in El Salvador. “I can’t get a job because I have no green card. . . . What do they want me to do--be on the streets?

“I try to keep my hopes, but I don’t understand why people would want to do this to kids who have worked so hard to overcome so much.”

School officials say there are probably more than 2,000 illegal immigrants among the 4,500 students at Belmont High near Downtown--the biggest school in Los Angeles, located in the heart of a burgeoning port of entry for this country’s newest arrivals.

Principal Augie Herrera calls the initiative shortsighted. “We have to educate these young people,” he said Friday. “We have to teach them what we want them to learn here or they will learn what they think they need to know in the streets. This has long-range implications in our society.”

Students said Friday that they are feeling befuddled, indignant and frightened by the Proposition 187 movement, which stands to profoundly affect their young lives. Most, like Roxana, responded with blank expressions and sad shrugs when asked to envision making a future in America without a formal education.

The initiative would deny public education to children who cannot prove that they are here legally and would require school officials to verify students’ legal status. On Thursday, Wilson said that he favors the measure and that California can no longer afford to educate an estimated 300,000 illegal immigrant students in the state.

That is not the way they expected America to treat them, said many Belmont students whose families brought them to this country illegally.

“Why does this Pete Wilson want to discriminate against us?” asked Anna, 19, a senior from Mexico who, after a year and a half at Belmont, is one of the best students in her English as a Second Language class. “I thought this country was made from immigrants like me. I thought I had a right to show Americans that I can make something of myself.”

Her classmates said Proposition 187 casts a pall over their futures, which for many were until now on a solid and traditional American path: Graduate from high school. Go to college. Get a job and make their parents proud.

“School is what can make my dreams come true,” said Carlos, 18, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who has attended public schools for four years and wants to become an immigration attorney. “It is my only way to improve myself, stay out of gangs. If I can’t go to school, I won’t be able to become anything in life.”

Carlos, like others, said that it will be very difficult to get anything but a low-paying job if he is not able to complete school. His family would suffer, he said, because he has pledged to help support them when he graduates.

“Then, when I become an adult, me and others like me will be angry with the government for taking our education away,” he said. “There will be a whole generation of children in Los Angeles who fear or maybe even hate the government. There will be great battles.”

Some of the students said they had no choice but to come to Los Angeles, pulled from their home countries of Mexico, El Salvador or Guatemala by parents and relatives trying to unite families or build new lives here.

They said their education has been one of the few hopeful experiences in this country, where their parents often squeeze out livelihoods as minimum-wage factory workers, housecleaners, baby-sitters and short-order cooks.

“I don’t think it is right or fair to take dreams away from children,” said senior Mirza Madrid, 18, who is a legal resident, but who has many friends who are illegal immigrants. “It’s hard enough for everyone as it is. Now Latino kids feel embarrassed and afraid to say where they are from.”

Many say they believe racism is fueling the move to shove illegal immigrants further to the fringes of California society. “(It) makes you feel guilty, like you are a problem,” said Jenny, 18, a senior from El Salvador. “But not all Latino people make trouble and break the law. If they do, they should be deported. But not all of us are like that.”

But many of the students said that even though they are here illegally they have a right to a free public education because of the contributions their parents have already made to the economy of this state and because they intend to become productive taxpayers.

“My mother baby-sits for a white family in Beverly Hills,” Anna said. “She is helping that American family. We buy things, we pay the taxes. And all I need is a chance to make myself better. It’s not like I want this for nothing. I will pay society back with good work.”

If Belmont is any indication, passage of Proposition 187 would remove students from campus, but would not result in an exodus of illegal children from this country.

“Many of these children came here alone and have nowhere to go,” said Kathleen O’Connell, the school’s bilingual education coordinator. “They’re not going to start running for the border. They’re going to find a way to stay.”

Roxana, the senior who wants to be a veterinarian, said no one she knows would leave the country if they were expelled from school. “These are kids who are going to be on the streets if you don’t let them go to school,” she said. “Would that be better--kids with no education and no hopes on the streets instead of in class trying to better themselves?”

Already, there is a thriving underground network that students can use to get phony copies of the documents necessary to find jobs, and Belmont Principal Herrera said he thinks Proposition 187 would create a new market for phony school documents.

The measure would require school officials to verify the citizenship of students--a provision that has alarmed teachers and generated opposition from the state’s professional education organizations. Currently, schools collect data only on whether students are native English speakers; they do not ask about legal status.

“It’s a very uncomfortable position to be in,” said Belmont biology teacher Greg Estrella. “These kids trust us. We go into this profession because we want to educate children, not decide who gets an education.

“I think there’d be a lot of teachers who’d leave the state rather than carry this out. I know I’d think about that.”