Community Essay : ‘Prop. 187 Tough Talk Is Fluff Talk’ : Portraying undocumented workers as ethnic bogymen won’t last because their role in California’s economy is crucial.

The political polls at the end of spring indicated that Gov. Pete Wilson was behind in popularity. So he turned to an old friend, the undocumented immigrant, to secure his reelection.

Many of us who live and work in the barrios recognized Wilson’s cynical motives when he charged out to support Proposition 187. Wilson and his politician friends found a scapegoat for California’s deteriorating schools, soaring medical costs and economic insecurity. The main supporters of Proposition 187 would have you believe that its implementation will drive undocumented immigrants out of the state and release California citizens from a heavy financial burden.

But the immigrant and the business person know that they need each other, regardless of what state and federal laws, county codes and city ordinances say. Most Latinos would acknowledge that many California business people--restaurant owners, manufacturers, contractors, hotel and office building owners, landscapers, ranchers and farmers--cannot economically prosper without cheap labor. The immigrant comes to work for the bosses’ profit and convenience in return for, he hopes, just wages and decent treatment. Bosses get workers who have the necessary skills at the right cost.

Proposition 187 will not change the economic basis of that unspoken contract. This year’s vicious attacks on immigrants will be forgotten when the next harvest arrives, or when another tract of desert needs to be developed for housing, or when the order arrives for the spring season in women’s fashions, or when the next convention of professionals arrive to use a hotel’s services and rooms.

History bears this out. The massive Depression-era deportations of Mexican immigrants didn’t stop people from later returning and settling in California when the political climate improved. Despite negative campaigns against “Okies,” Chinese railroad workers or whatever ethnic bogyman is in vogue, the demand for decent wages and jobs has matched the demand for qualified cheap labor throughout California’s history.

I remember playing the barrio version of tag, La Migra, as a kid with my brother and sister and neighbors. One of our playmates would take the role of an Immigration and Naturalization Service officer. The rest of us would play ourselves, immigrants. The object of the game was to escape capture.

When the “officer” yelled “Migra!” everyone ran and hid. As the migra officer approached, the “immigrants” would twist and turn like contortionists on roller skates. Everyone, including the migra officer, laughed with delirium. When the game was over, we shed the roles and reverted to friends. Perhaps California entrepreneurs do not rub elbows in the same neighborhoods, schools, churches or night clubs with the immigrant. Perhaps we cannot call each other friends. But our relationship is friendly. Certainly we roll up our sleeves together at work.

In the end, the entrepreneur and the immigrant can chuckle, knowing that the politicians were only playing a make-believe game of chase for the television cameras and unsuspecting voters. Years from now, we can share anecdotes that the politicians’ tough talk was only fluff talk and that only the uninitiated or naive would believe the Proposition 187 rhetoric.