Effects of Prop. 187

Prop. 187 would prevent children of illegal immigrants from attending our public schools. Those who think this will save us money are fooling themselves. The children who are excluded from our schools will still get an education. It will not be a formal education obtained in the schoolroom; instead it will be an education obtained on the streets, and the cost to us will be many times greater than the cost of letting those children go to our schools.

ALBERT L. ROCKLIN

Laguna Hills

* It seems like the bleeding hearts that are against the proposition are looking at all the wrong reasons. It’s not a matter of throwing thousands of illegal alien children out of school and onto the streets. It’s a matter of disallowing any illegal aliens benefits they have no right to. It takes away the attraction to come to this country illegally. It puts pressure on the Mexican government to take care of its problems instead of exporting them to the U.S.

As Jesse Laguna put it from his perspective as a Latino (“Latinos Want a Tighter Border, Too,” Commentary, Sept. 23), if a person is in this country illegally, he is breaking the law. We can’t feed, educate, and care for the entire world.

I say for all the bleeding hearts that are opposed to it, to put their money where their mouth is. Liquidate their entire net worth and spend it all on support and benefits for illegal immigrants. Only then would they have the right to beat their drum to demand that our government and our tax dollars do that.

ROSS BISHOP

Solana Beach

* I want to thank Kathleen Brown for giving Prop. 187 the perspective it deserves. My grandparents, legal residents of this state, were forbidden from buying property in their own name as late as the 1950s because of this state’s exclusion laws. My father-in-law had to sign the deed so that his parents, my wife’s grandparents, could buy a home. My own parents, along with all Japanese Americans in California, were “relocated” during World War II. Anyone who has lived in California for the last two and three generations knows that Prop. 187 will not just affect the undocumented. It has the potential of hurting all people of color. How many of you have lost your birth certificate? How many of your children will be deemed “suspect” because of their color? Or their speech? Or anything that makes them stand out?

Forget that Prop. 187 will throw 300,000 children out onto the streets to become legalized truants. (If their parents are working, these children will either be working with their parents or out on the street for the police to take care of.) Forget that Prop. 187 will cost us up to $15 billion in federal money for schools and MediCal. Forget that Prop. 187 does nothing to stop illegal aliens at the border or in the sweatshops.

Remember that Prop. 187 will punish innocent children for the sins of their parents. That is wrong. It reeks of the racism of the past. The aftershocks of this proposition could damage this society as badly as the Northridge earthquake.

CHRISTOPHER KAKIMI

Hacienda Heights

* Those of us who are against Prop. 187 should not spend time considering such issues as fair play, selfishness or mean-spiritedness but pragmatically remember the American immigrant experience.

It is risky to play shortsighted games with such a potential asset to our country. How sad that so many already documented immigrants, going back several generations, are willing to take such a chance.

JEROME CUSHMAN

Canoga Park

* Buried in The Times on Sept. 22 was an article headlined “Reno Rebuffs Wilson, Says State Hasn’t Sought Immigration Funds.” With the governor’s reelection campaign coming to a conclusion, this piece deserved a more prominent placement. More important, if this sitting governor does not know that a special immigration fund was put in place in June and available to states applying for assistance, then Pete Wilson is negligent and does not deserve to be reelected.

CHARLES R. BARR

Upland

* Carlos Fuentes should know better. He should not stoop to political infighting, particularly when he refuses to speak correctly to the facts. In “Why Damn a Great State Resource?” (Commentary, Sept. 28) he has completely and purposely obfuscated the issue. He has used the one relevant word only once in his (approximately) 500-word article--that being “illegal.” And in so doing he very adroitly used it to defame Prop. 187, not as a modifier to the immigrants against whom the proposition is directed.

Neither does he excoriate his own country for failing to face the degrading issue of poverty and lack of self-sustaining jobs in Mexico as the reason for creating the problem in the United States. Please, Mr. Fuentes, stop bashing the elected officials of California and finally admit that there are two sides to every question.

MARYE MYERS

South Pasadena