Citizenship Classes Swell at L.A. Unified Adult Schools : Immigration: Concerns over the impact of Prop. 187 prompt growing numbers to enter the instructional program to become legal U.S. residents.

Arturo Gomez Mendoza arrived in the United States 21 years ago from Michoacan, Mexico, but he never thought about enrolling in citizenship classes until what he calls “the repression” began earlier this year.

“All the talk about immigrants before these elections was horrible,” said Mendoza, a butcher at a meat-packing plant in Vernon. “Some people want to force us (Latinos) into a corral and control us. The only way we can feel safe is by becoming citizens.”

After voters approved Proposition 187 last month, Mendoza, 48, promptly enrolled at Huntington Park Adult School. The initiative, which is being challenged in the courts, would deny education and basic social services to illegal immigrants.

Mendoza is not alone in his response to the measure’s passage. According to Los Angeles Unified School District officials, enrollment in citizenship classes surged after the Nov. 8 election.

“We’re witnessing a clear reaction to recent political events,” said Domingo Rodriguez, coordinator of the district’s adult citizenship programs.

Most of the 26 adult schools reported increases in citizenship class enrollment. Four reported significant increases, six had moderate increases and six reported slight increases immediately after the Nov. 8 election. The other adult schools in the district have experienced steady class growth throughout the year, Rodriguez said.

The adult schools having the largest increases are Huntington Park, Roosevelt in Boyle Heights, Banning in Wilmington, and Van Nuys.

Exact figures for the increases at individual schools were not yet available, Dominguez said. But at the largest of the district’s adult schools--Huntington Park, with 1,300 students--school administrator Rudy Marquez said enrollment increased by an unprecedented 150 students after the election.

“Anti-immigrant attitudes are pushing people to feel their community is being threatened,” said Rick Erhard, a citizenship teacher and adviser at Huntington Park. “And they’re reacting very rationally by becoming citizens.”

Interest in the citizenship classes already was high. Following a district-sponsored six-month outreach program that began in late 1993, a record 8,300 resident adults enrolled in the classes from January to June, 1994, the end of the academic year. Citizenship class enrollment for the entire district averaged only 300 students a year from 1990 to 1993.

Another factor fueling the enrollment increase is that many residents are just becoming eligible to seek citizenship. In 1986 and the following two years, 3 million immigrants applied for legal permanent residency through the legalization program of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

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Most of those who obtained permanent residency started to become eligible for citizenship in late 1993 because legal immigrants must have at least five years of permanent residency in the U.S. before they are eligible to naturalize.

According to 1990 U.S. Census figures, about 1.6 million of the nation’s amnesty applicants--54%--are Californians. The city of Los Angeles alone has more than 410,000 amnesty applicants, most of them Latino.

“Ironically, (Gov.) Pete Wilson (a major proponent of Proposition 187) helped galvanize the Latino community in a way he never dreamed of,” said Rudy Marquez, who coordinates the citizenship programs at Huntington Park. “With 187, he made people who are just now becoming eligible to become citizens angry enough to go and do it. In two years, when these people start voting, he and the backers of this thing are going to regret it.”

According to a recent report by the Los Angeles-based National Assn. of Latino Elected Officials, Southern California could gain more than 2 million new voters this decade, most of them Latino immigrants. And once Latino immigrants naturalize, their voter registration rate is 81%, a higher figure than that of the general U.S. voting population, which is 70%, the report said.

All of which makes good sense to citizenship student Mendoza, a man partial to the proverbs of his homeland.

“ Donde comes y trabajas de ahi eres ,” he said in Spanish following a Huntington Park class discussing the American Revolution.

“Where you eat and work, that’s where you’re from,” Mendoza translated. “The Latinos have known that for a long time, only now, we’re doing something about it.”