You May Be Surprised at Who’s Against Prop. 187 : Conservative, business, police leaders see measure as a grave mistake

The Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. includes more than 400 member businesses and affiliates in the San Fernando Valley and its environs. Together they employ 250,000 people. That makes the overwhelming consensus VICA’s board recently reached on Proposition 187 both meaningful and worthy of note.

Thirty-nine VICA board members participated. Thirty-one of them (more than 79%) came out against Proposition 187, the so-called Save Our State initiative on Tuesday’s ballot. Three were in favor of it, and five took no position.

Proposition 187 is the measure that would prohibit state and local governments from providing education, health care and other social services to illegal immigrants. State and local agencies would suddenly be required to report “apparent illegal aliens” to immigration authorities. We are strongly opposed to this initiative, and urge voters to cast their ballots against it.

For the VICA board, the reasoning was simple: It would make a bad situation even worse. It would force schools, businesses, hospitals and other social-service organizations to take on the role of the police. It could cost billions of dollars in federal revenues and would cost taxpayers additional millions of dollars for legal fees in immediate court battles over its constitutionality.

Moreover, according Benjamin Reznik, VICA’s immediate past chairman: “There is nothing in Proposition 187 that deals with stopping illegal immigration. There is not one penny to help with border patrols. It does not deal with the root causes of illegal immigration, which is people coming across the border to get jobs, not benefits. Proposition 187 is an angry knee-jerk reaction to a frustration that we all share, but it will do more harm than good.”

VICA is hardly alone in its fears about the damage that 187’s passage would do, and we have compiled quite a list of eloquent opponents. In the business community, the initiative is also opposed by Bank of America Vice Chairman Michael Rossi, by J. P. Morgan Securities Managing Director Michael George and by Michael R. Peevey, former president of Southern California Edison.

Proposition 187 “is like an arrow aimed right at the heart of California’s business climate,” adds Mel Katz, director of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce.

But we’ve more ground to cover than this.

Consider, for instance, the Jewish Community Coalition Against Proposition 187. It represents more than 3,300 San Fernando Valley families, as well as regional Jewish organizations representing another 50,000 families.

Proposition 187 “makes informants out of all of us,” said Rabbi Harold M. Schulweiss, a member of the coalition. For another member, Tzivia Schwartz, 187’s requirements remind her of “the experience the Jewish community had in Europe, where being suspected of being Jewish was grounds for all kinds of horrible things.”

Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, said that 187 amounts to “a message that includes tossing hundreds of thousands of kids out of school, that refuses to immunize children and that asks taxpayers to gamble $15 billion in federal funds that come to California each year.”

In Orange County, the Rev. Richard C. Kennedy said: “Proposition 187 is immoral. This thing is godless.”

In the medical community, the California Medical Assn. and the California Assn. of Hospitals are already preparing lawsuits to thwart the initiative, should it pass on Tuesday. And a team of UCLA and USC medical researchers said the initiative will hasten the spread of tuberculosis in California because immigrants will be afraid to seek out medical authorities. The researchers also fear the return of long-dormant strains of syphilis and a re-emergence of measles.

Proposition 187 is opposed by Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams, the Los Angeles Police Commission, and Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block on the grounds that kicking youngsters out of school will only leave them vulnerable to gangs and other criminal influences. The initiative “is a fraud and a hoax,” says Block.

And prominent Republicans and conservatives have lined up against Proposition 187. They include William J. Bennett, education secretary under President Reagan, and Jack Kemp, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bush. Both Bennett and Kemp have denounced the initiative as “profoundly anti-conservative” and “fundamentally flawed.” Proposition 187 would “demean all immigrants,” according to Brian O’Leary Bennett, a former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Robert K. Dornan. And William Safire, perhaps the preeminent conservative columnist of our day, considers the measure an “abomination.”

Vote no on 187. It’s too much of a risk to take.