State Waits to See What Prop. 187 Will Really Mean : Reaction: As measure becomes law, emotions range from fear to elation. But there is also great uncertainty.

And so again, Californians awoke to the strains of upheaval--not, this time, from rioting or earthquakes, but from a ballot measure, a directive of the people that brought a jarring shift to the political landscape.

Overnight, California tilted on its edge. It was no longer the land of opportunity, at least to many. It had taken on a harder edge, become more divided, less a melting pot, us and them .

By viewpoints bitterly divided, here was the bold, trend-setting state or the ice-hearted domain where the people had put dollar concerns ahead of humanitarian will, where they had finally risen up to shout, Stop! Send us no more of your poor--no more of those undocumented huddled masses, streaming in by the thousands.

Yet in the aftermath of Proposition 187’s emphatic victory, there was more than just pain and elation. There also was confusion and hand-wringing, a swell of concern about what it all might mean--whether the initiative can be enforced, whether the courts will call it legal, whether anything will, or should, change at all.

For months, the proposition stood as the focal point of one of the most rancorous campaigns in state history. Now, there comes a sense of disquiet--everyone waiting for the fallout to settle, for the new order to take shape.

Wednesday was a time to reflect and to look ahead. From the timber forests of far Northern California to Smuggler’s Canyon, where immigrants gather to cross the Mexican border, the next stage of the great debate had begun.

CENTRAL VALLEY / Struggling to Survive

At the Paradise Bar on Atlantic Boulevard, pallet manufacturer Alex Gonzales said the measure probably would change nothing for the three undocumented workers he employs because few Americans are willing to do the same work.

“I told them, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ ” Gonzales said. “ ‘You still have have a job.’ ”

In Ladera Heights, where day laborers gather each morning, there was no change in their simple routine. The regular crowd of about 50 convened outside a Home Base store, some expressing doubt that Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies would enforce the provisions of the new law.

But even if they do, workers vowed to wait for jobs. After all, they said, they have to survive.

“We can’t be afraid. We have to confront this issue,” said Juan Carlos, 30, the father of three children. “It is either this or starve.”

A man who arrived looking for temporary employees said he did not believe that the ballot measure will make much difference.

“It’s all about supply and demand,” said the man, who was offering $7 an hour to help prune trees. He hired two helpers and drove away.

In other places, the potential impact on the pool of low-cost labor also loomed large. In the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley, November is dead time: Vineyards and fruit orchards have been picked clean and the workers, both legal and illegal, who did the hard toil of the harvest have returned to Mexico or moved on to apple orchards in Washington.

Therefore, the debate over Proposition 187 moved indoors--to places such as Austin’s coffee shop in Sanger, where farmers took differing views on how it will affect a region where as much as 50% of the peak-season work force crosses the border illegally.

“Let’s hope 187 is tied up in the courts for a long time,” one raisin farmer said, “ ‘cause if they stop them from coming over, you can kiss this valley goodby.”

But raisin packer Gerald Chooljian took a different view, saying he voted for the measure even though he considers it unconstitutional. Some undocumented Mexican workers, he said, fraudulently collect unemployment benefits using phony documents. He wanted to send a message.

“The politicians need to know that we’re sick and tired of welfare programs,” Chooljian said.

“But it’s not the illegals who are abusing the welfare system,” said Jim Jerkovich, who argued that the percentage of unemployment abusers is small. “They’re too afraid they’ll be caught and sent back.”

Labor contractor Larry Peters, who voted against Proposition 187, was ebullient nevertheless. “How sweet it is,” he said. “I voted straight Republican up and down. I didn’t give a damn who they were.”

Asked how he could reconcile a vote for Gov. Pete Wilson and a vote against the proposition, he smiled and said, “It doesn’t make any sense at all.”

NEWPORT BEACH / A ‘Great Day’

The proposition found much of its staunchest support among the well-heeled, including those at Fashion Island, the upscale mall overlooking the sea in Newport Beach. Voters there said they were tired of carrying the financial burden of illegal immigration.

“Today is my great day,” said Mike Sawdie, a silver-haired, 48-year-old lawyer who had stopped at Brooks Brothers, his favorite clothing store. He was picking out a tie to go with a new jacket and flashy suspenders. “We have so limited resources today that we need to use them to take care of our own. . . . Ask the homeless people or elderly if we have enough resources.

“So why are we taking care of people who are here illegally? It is absurd.”

Critical-care nurse Judy Peterson, 34, was getting in some early holiday shopping while workers put the finishing touches on the mall’s giant Christmas tree. “I work full time for benefits for my family, and I don’t feel it is fair for illegals to be coming in and getting health care free,” she said.

Peterson’s husband had joined her on the shopping trip to avoid driving to work through Los Angeles, fearing the possibility of violent demonstrations by Proposition 187 opponents.

“I don’t want him stuck in Los Angeles because of a riot,” Peterson said.

Not far away, at a gourmet shop, Maureen Reed, 39, of Mission Viejo, said she is willing to accept the consequences of her vote.

“We have a Mexican person who does our lawn,” she observed. “I don’t know if he is illegal or not. If it means we have to pay more for getting our lawn done, we will.”

Similar strong support for the measure was felt in quiet, predominantly white strongholds of conservatism, where it was seen as a means of protecting the existing lifestyle. In the two coffee shops on California 395 that serve as the unofficial forums of political debate in Bishop--a mountain town between the Sierra Nevada and Inyo ranges--there was nearly unanimous support for the initiative.

Bishop residents live on quiet streets in neatly painted homes. By 9 every night, almost everyone is indoors.

“That’s why we live here,” said insurance agent Chuck Kilpatrick. “We don’t want gangs and graffiti. We’re proud of our town.”

Police Chief Fred Coburn said: “There was no doubt that 187 would pass here. The issue of illegal aliens comes up at every public meeting.”

But in other cities--especially where demographics were more varied--residents tended to fear unintended effects of the proposition. Illegal immigrants might place a demand on government services--but they also spend money; they help fill cash registers, said Rephina Louie, owner of an herbal medicine store in Alhambra.

“The California economy is already pathetic,” Louie said. “A lot of illegal people who can’t afford health insurance, they come to our place. Now we’re going to lose their business. If they can’t live here and get an education, they’re not going to buy our herbal medicine.”

Louie discussed the problem while dining with friends in Monterey Park. They shared dim sum, tea, cigarettes and a Chinese newspaper. Alex Tsai put down his chopsticks, grabbed another cigarette and labeled the proposition hypocritical.

“Passing 187 is like robbing a house and then crying robbery,” he said. “The U.S. stole (Mexican) land now they want to kick them out. This is a big country with a very small heart.”

SAN YSIDRO / Along the Border

Racial tensions fostered by the initiative were apparent in towns large and small across the state. That was especially true in communities along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In San Ysidro, on the American side, Jack Yufe was forced to close his apparel shop to prevent vandalism during one rowdy pre-election protest of the measure. Now that the initiative has passed, he is worried about more protests or possibly a boycott by shoppers from Tijuana, who make up 80% of his customers.

Yufe, a Trinidadian immigrant in his 60s, thought about supporting the proposition when he saw protesters waving Mexican flags and threatening to burn American flags. He would not say how he finally voted.

“The only thing worse than a bad illness is bad medicine,” he said. “Yes, illegal immigration causes problems, but this 187 is bad medicine which will make it worse. The Mexicans don’t understand the Americans, and the Americans don’t understand the Mexicans.”

Finally, nudged by his wife, Ruth, an immigrant from Mexico, Yufe found a Mexican folk phrase to describe people trying to change a big problem with a little solution.

“The Mexicans say: ‘Don’t try to blot out the sun with your thumb,’ ” he said. “That’s what this is.”

Across the border in Tijuana, Jose Gomez stood ready to challenge Wilson and California’s shiny new law with the only political tools he possessed: a scuffed and sturdy pair of running shoes.

The shoes and a religious medal of the Virgin Mary were his only resources; every day, Gomez makes his way on foot across the barren concrete divide separating Mexico from the oatmeal-colored hills of California. INS officials ousted him from California on drunk driving charges 18 days ago, but neither that, nor Proposition 187, figured to slow him down.

“I’m sure this new law will affect us, and I know it will be very serious for our lives,” Gomez said, just a stone’s throw away from the invisible border marking California. “But I will try to go back. I will try in the night when it’s better to run. At this moment, I’m broke. Everything I have is over there.”

January is the beginning of the busy season for illegal immigrants traveling to the United States after Christmas, one Tijuana police officer said. By then, tensions may escalate, but in the meantime there is a steady trickle--with or without 187. One man, waiting on the street outside the Tijuana bus station, conceded that the measure has created fear.

“I think we’ll go to Ensenada to look for work there instead,” he said.

Moments later, he and two other men, toting small bags, disappeared into a van. Gonzalo Perez Munoz, the depot’s assistant manager, watched them depart with amusement.

“They’re going to California,” he said. “Where else do you think they’re going?”

The continuing arrival of immigrants added to passion for and against the proposition even in communities far from the border.

EUREKA / Small-Town Tensions

In Eureka, a bay-front town of Victorian homes, sidewalk cafes and fishing boats about 250 miles north of San Francisco, the measure’s passage seemed to widen the rift between the predominantly white population and the Latino community.

“There’s going to be a lot of distrust,” said Fernando Aguirre, chairman of the Eureka-based Centro de Informacion Bilingue Y Cultural, a group formed to promote Latino culture. He feared that all Latinos would be viewed with suspicion.

“I’ll tell you one thing,” said one non-Latino laborer at a Eureka-area flower farm. “The people we have working here who are questionable immigrants, they’re the hardest workers. They bust their asses in the rain all day.”

In Fillmore, a quaint Ventura County town lying among the rolling coastal hills north of Los Angeles, a solid community of Latinos outnumbers white residents 3 to 2. Lined up for pastries and Spanish-language newspapers at La Unica bakery, some called the new law misguided and discriminatory.

“Gov. Wilson came up with a reason to get himself elected. He’s a hypocrite,” said clerk Aureo Melgoza, 49, ringing up an order. “It’s unfair, too. The state needs (immigrant workers). The misconception that these people are milking the system is not really true.”

Felipe Montelongo, 35, a fruit packer from Mexico, deplored how the measure might affect schoolchildren. Evaristo Barajas complained that parts of the proposition are written so that services can be denied even if there is a suspicion that someone is illegal.

“What are they going to base suspicion on?” he asked. “Our language? Our color? They’re going to be able to lock children out of school even if they’re citizens of the U.S.”

But the town seemed divided along ethnic lines. Cattle rancher Bill King, 74, was one of many who supported the measure.

“I think it’s going to be a contest in the courts, and I think it’s going to lose,” he said. “But I think it’s going to send a message to Washington that (the federal government) didn’t get before.”

Illegal immigration is chaos, he said. “When they come here illegally, they violate our law,” King added. “You try going to Mexico and getting away with this ----. You’ll wind up in a Mexican jail.”

BAY AREA / The Fires of Resentment

Emotions were relatively subdued at UC Berkeley, the hub of free speech and radical student politics in the 1960s. No one carried pickets, but some students said they were “appalled” and “embarrassed” by the new law.

“It sucks,” said Eric Lopez, 24. “It’s so racist. I’m a Native American. We didn’t say anything about the whites coming.”

A few miles away at a job-referral center in East Oakland, a Nicaraguan immigrant named Antonio, 27, sat waiting out a storm. He had been digging ditches for $10 an hour before rains had forced his employer to stop work.

“If you don’t have your documents, you are always afraid,” he said. Acknowledging that he is not a legal resident, Antonio said he believes Proposition 187 has fanned a fire of resentment toward illegal immigrants that is affecting the willingness of Americans to hire him and others like him.

He blames the measure for prompting a contractor to ask him two weeks ago to show his documents.

“I tried to avoid the problem,” he said in Spanish. “I told him I would rather not stay on the job, that I don’t like the job.”

He goes to school at night to learn English, and he said the community college he attends informed him recently that he might have to pay for the class if Proposition 187 passed.

But he is more worried about getting sick and being unable to get medical care.

“In two years living in the U.S., I have never been to a doctor,” he said. “I really hope I will not have to go to the hospital now.”

At a taco stand in South-Central Los Angeles, five Mexican immigrants said they expected to pull their children out of school because of the measure.

“We are no better than criminals,” said Jose Zaragosa, a day laborer. “They treat us like animals.”

But questions remained about how strongly the new law will be enforced, even if the courts uphold it. In the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Bureau, where there have been almost as many murders as days this year, overworked detectives said Wednesday that they can’t even keep up with a growing number of of homicides, let alone ask people for green cards.

“I don’t have enough detectives to check on my murders. So how am I going to keep track of that administrative lunacy?” asked Lt. Sergio Robleto, commander of the bureau’s homicide detail.

Eight lockers filled with notebooks stood as a grim testimony to the area’s victims. Spanning an area from the Santa Monica Freeway to San Pedro and from Watts to Windsor Hills, the South Bureau is one of the bloodiest stretches of turf in the nation; if it were a city, the 57-square-mile zone would rank among the 10 deadliest in the nation.

At the same time, it is also home to one of the nation’s fastest-growing Latino communities. Because many of those immigrants came from countries where law enforcement officials were linked to death squads or drug cartels, fear and mistrust of the police runs high. So LAPD officers have gone to great lengths to try to earn the trust of Latino residents, even establishing a storefront “contact center” at a local Catholic church where residents quietly meet with Spanish-speaking officers.

“It’s not our job to ask people where they are from,” said LAPD Officer Joel Morales. “We aren’t the INS. We have more important things to do.”

Times staff writers Mark Arax, Mack Reed, Doreen Carvajal, Tony Perry, Ching Ching Ni, Isaac Guzman and Leslie Berkman and correspondents Marie Gravelle, Sarah A. Klein and Bennett Kessler contributed to this story.

A Day of Reflection

The shock waves from the passage of Proposition 187 began to rumble across the state Wednesday from tiny Eureka in the north all the way to the Mexican border. Times reporters talked with working people in eight counties to assess the changes the sweeping initiative will bring to their communities.

1) ALAMEDA COUNTY

City: Berkeley

Proposition 187

For: 40.5%

Against: 59.5%

* Ethnic Breakdown: 53.2% White, 17.4% Black, 14.2% Latino, 14.4% Asian.

* Median Household Income: $37,544

* Education: College, 28.8%

2) FRESNO COUNTY

City: Sanger

Proposition 187

For: 66.3%

Against: 33.7%

* Ethnic Breakdown: 50.7% White, 4.7% Black, 35.4% Latino, 8.1% Asian.

* Median Household Income: $26,377

* Education: College, 16.9%

3) HUMBOLDT COUNTY

City: Eureka

Proposition 187

For: 53.1%

Against: 46.9%

* Ethnic Breakdown: 87.9% White, 0.8% Black, 4.2% Latino, 1.9% Asian.

* Median Household Income: $23,586

* Education: College, 20%

4) INYO COUNTY

City: Bishop

Proposition 187

For: 75%

Against: 25%

* Ethnic Breakdown: 81.1% White, 0.4% Black, 8.4% Latino, 0.9% Asian.

* Median Household Income: $24,386

* Education: College, 13.5%

5) LOS ANGELES COUNTY

City: Los Angeles

Proposition 187

For: 56%

Against: 44%

* Ethnic Breakdown: 40.8% White, 10.5% Black, 37.8% Latino, 10.2% Asian.

* Median Household Income: $34,965

* Education: College, 22.3%

6) ORANGE COUNTY

City: Newport Beach

Proposition 187

For: 67.4%

Against: 32.6%

* Ethnic Breakdown: 64.5% White, 1.6% Black, 23.4% Latino, 10.0% Asian.

* Median Household Income: $45,922

* Education: College, 27.8%

7) ALAMEDA COUNTY

City: San Ysidro

Proposition 187

For: 67.5%

Against: 32.5%

* Ethnic Breakdown: 65.4% White, 6.0% Black, 20.4% Latino, 7.4% Asian.

* Median Household Income: $35,022

* Education: College, 25.3%

8) VENTURA COUNTY

City: Fillmore

Proposition 187

For: 65.5%

Against: 34.5%

* Ethnic Breakdown: 65.8% White, 2.2% Black, 26.4% Latino, 4.9% Asian.

* Median Household Income: $45,612

* Education: College, 23%

Note: Education figures are for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Sources: U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics, Bureau of the Census

Researched by CECILIA RASMUSSEN / Los Angeles Times