CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / PROPOSITION 187 : Kemp Defends Criticism Before Hostile Audience

Former Republican Cabinet Secretary Jack F. Kemp faced an unenthusiastic and sometimes angry audience at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace on Wednesday as he defended his condemnation of Proposition 187, the illegal immigration reform measure on the Nov. 8 state ballot.

In his first public discussion of his opposition to the initiative, Kemp told the audience that he could not, in good conscience, support a measure that would “turn teachers and nurses into agents of the INS.”

Plunging into a controversial debate that puts him at odds with the state Republican Party--and, according to recent public opinion polls, a majority of the state’s voters--Kemp said the measure feeds an anti-immigrant movement that the GOP should oppose.

“I was so bothered in my conscience (about the initiative) that I could not, in good conscience, support it, even though I know it will probably pass,” said Kemp, who is considered a possible presidential candidate in 1996.

“Vote for (Proposition 187). Go ahead and vote for it,” Kemp told an Anaheim apartment owner who blamed the crime rate on illegal immigrants. “I don’t blame you at all. . . . Send a signal (to Washington). But don’t ask me to defend something that’s fundamentally flawed. . . . I am speaking from the heart.”

The former Housing and Urban Development secretary also told the audience not to “scapegoat the problems of California on immigrants because they are not the source of the problem. The source of the problem is the overtaxation, the overregulation, the stupid defense cuts from Washington, D.C.”

Kemp, who was invited to the Nixon library to discuss 1996 presidential campaign issues, was grilled by the audience after it was reported that Kemp and William J. Bennett, another former Republican Cabinet secretary, had prepared a statement strongly opposing the anti-immigration initiative.

In the policy statement, which was released Wednesday, Kemp and Bennett said that although they oppose illegal immigration and welfare benefits for illegal immigrants, they believe Proposition 187 is unconstitutional and may “contribute to a nativist, anti-immigrant climate.” Instead, they called for more effective border control, reform of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and a crackdown on fraudulent immigration documents while opposing national identification cards.

The release of the policy statement coincided with Kemp’s planned speech in Orange County--the birthplace of Proposition 187--and on the same day that former President George Bush attended a political fund-raiser for Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

Bush did not comment on the measure. Dornan--despite his support for it--expressed his own reservations and said of Kemp and Bennett: “I absolutely respect their opinions.”

Dornan conceded that the initiative is flawed and may have an adverse effect on schoolchildren. The initiative would require school administrators to report children or the parents of children who are suspected of being illegal immigrants.

Outside the restaurant where Bush and Dornan appeared, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) issued a stinging rebuke of Kemp.

“His act of stupidity has knocked him right out of the presidential race,” Rohrabacher told reporters. “If he disagreed with it, he should have kept his mouth shut. . . . Jack Kemp wants to be loved. The man is using his heart, but that’s not the organ of the body meant for thinking.”

Kemp has campaigned for Gov. Pete Wilson and other GOP candidates on the statewide ballot, a point not lost on a man who stood up after Kemp’s speech to challenge Kemp’s immigration statement.

“Why didn’t you just be quiet?” the audience member asked, prompting laughter from the audience. “All you did was boost (Democratic gubernatorial candidate) Kathleen Brown and possibly wound your good friend, Pete Wilson.”

“Pete Wilson is not going to lose the election because of Jack Kemp,” the former Cabinet secretary said, emphasizing his belief that Wilson will win the election.

Times staff writer Martin Miller contributed to this report.