Some Attach Strings to the Spirit of Giving : Charities: Donor stipulations that gift recipients not be illegal immigrants is a new and disturbing trend, officials say. One volunteer blames Prop. 187.

Workers at four charities that operate “adopt-a-family” programs in Orange County say some potential donors in the last few weeks have been specifying that their holiday gifts go to legal residents or non-Latinos only.

“The problem this year has been there are very strong anti-immigrant feelings as a result of Prop. 187,” said Shirley Bebereia, a teacher who runs the holiday food distribution program at Century High School in Santa Ana.

Mary Doman, program manager for ESA Community Service Center in Anaheim, said about seven of the 110 or so people who have called to adopt a family for the holiday have stipulated that the recipients not be illegal immigrants.

Because ESA has religious roots, like many other nonprofit agencies, Doman said, she refuses to investigate the legal status of clients.

“I say no, because the Church for the last 2,000 years has been considered a sanctuary, a haven for people in need, and we don’t require hungry people to prove their legality,” she said.

But she said donors then have insisted on being assigned families that are English-speaking or non-Latino.

“One elderly woman was going to donate $100 but said I had to make sure the people who received it were documented, so I had to find someone white and English-speaking, a Bob Cratchit family, because that was her comfort zone,” said Laurel Williams, an intern from Cal State Fullerton who is helping Doman coordinate donors with families.

Doman said people always have had preferences for the families they want to help at Thanksgiving and Christmas. She said benefactors frequently will ask to be matched with a single parent or a family of a size that mirrors their own.

But specifying ethnic backgrounds is a new and disturbing trend, she said.

“I respect their wishes, but my own feeling is that they are basically closing their eyes and hearts to people that need help,” she said.

Officials with Share Our Selves in Costa Mesa said Wednesday they have received a few similar donation requests, and workers at Southwest Community Center in Santa Ana reported getting about 10 such requests in the last three weeks.

Bebereia said she believes anti-illegal immigrant feelings spawned by Proposition 187 made it much more difficult this year for her to gather enough Thanksgiving dinners for needy families of students at Century High School, situated in one of the county’s poorest neighborhoods.

About 10 potential donors refused to give when she said she could not verify that the families receiving their turkeys and trimmings were legal residents.

“They are good-hearted, compassionate people wiling to help other people. But they only want to help a person who is here legally,” she said.

Barbara Coe of Huntington Beach, one of original organizers of Proposition 187, the initiative passed by California voters that would deny most public services to illegal immigrants, said of those donors: “That’s their decision, not mine.

“It’s their dollars, and if they want to ensure that only law-abiding people receive the benefit of their generosity, then that’s their business.”

Connie J. Jones, director of Southwest Community Center in Santa Ana, said it distresses her that people from Mexico are being stereotyped as illegal immigrants.

“Undocumented people come in all colors, shapes and sizes,” she said. “We have undocumented people from Asia, Canada, Latin American countries and Europe.”

Jones said she believes only about 10% of the people who received 705 food bags last month from Southwest Community Center were in the country illegally, an estimate that she said was based on those unable to produce Social Security cards or other identification.

She said she does not chide donors who want to specify who will receive their charity.

“I tell them whatever your restriction when you adopt a family, we will try to adhere to it as much as possible. We will try to find a white or black family or Spanish family or a family who speaks English,” she said.

But Jones said she will not ask about the legal status of anyone seeking help.

“I don’t have time, and it is against my principles because I don’t believe we should judge people when they are in need,” she said. “The only time I judge people when they come here is if they are intoxicated or have weapons on them.”

Those unwilling to feed the hungry who are illegal immigrants are still in the minority, charity workers said.

“I would say the vast majority of our donors just want to help at Christmas time,” said Jean Forbath, founder of Share Our Selves.

This week, she said an employee group wanting to adopt a family for Christmas rejected one with a Latino surname, but other employees from the same company called to help that family. “They said it troubled them, and that was rather heart-warming to me,” Forbath said.

Times staff writer Martin Miller contributed to this report.