Prop. 187 Flyers Are Ordered to Calm Fears : Legislation: Judge requires notices to ensure immigrants aren’t denied services or turned in.

Under federal court order, the state required public health clinics, welfare agencies and schools to post notices last week that no one would be denied services or reported to immigration authorities because Proposition 187 has not taken effect.

The notices also announced the creation of three state-funded telephone lines to answer questions about the anti-illegal immigrant measure and take reports from people who say they were denied services.

Both steps were ordered by U. S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer, who has issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the measure, which was approved by voters in November and would deny most public services to illegal immigrants. The proposition also requires public agencies and police to report suspected illegal immigrants to the INS.

Pfaelzer ordered the public postings to be completed by Feb. 13 and also required the state to file a report by Monday detailing how it complied with the order.

Shannon Bowman, a spokeswoman for the state’s Health and Welfare Department, said the state sent out 130,000 notices to health care providers at a cost of $30,000. Costs were not available for notices sent to welfare agencies. Bowman said most of the notices were sent two weeks ago.

The state Department of Education sent letters dated Jan. 30 to the heads of all public school districts and school boards informing them of the court order, officials said. The department provided a sample notice for posting, which simply states that children cannot be kept out of school because of immigration status and that school employees are forbidden to ask students or parents about their status.

But the posting of notices apparently has not gone smoothly at some health, welfare and education agencies.

At the Claude Hudson Comprehensive Health Center in Downtown Los Angeles, one of six such county centers, no notices had been posted as of Tuesday.

Toby Staheli, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Health Services, said the county had believed the state would send notices to each health center. After discovering that apparently was not the case, Staheli said the county was duplicating its own notice from the state and having it posted at all county health centers.

The posting would ease some of the fears of Catalina Rodriguez, 33, who had brought her ill child to the center.

“I don’t think the people here will turn you in” to the INS, Rodriguez said. “But now I worry about who looks at my medical records, and what the government is going to do.”

Meanwhile, next door to the center, at the county’s social services offices, where welfare and food stamps are handed out, a state-issued piece of notebook-sized paper detailing the injunction against the measure was taped to the back wall of a lobby.

A spot check of local public high schools found that the notices had not been posted. The Los Angeles Unified School District already sent home notices to parents and posted notices about the measure’s injunction immediately after the November election, said Howard Freidman, a district lawyer. New notices were expected to be posted in compliance with the federal order, officials said.

The LAUSD is one of several governmental entities suing the state, contending the measure limits access to public education.

Tom Saenz, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which is suing the state over the measure, said the public notices from the state were needed because many immigrants had believed the measure had taken effect.

“It’s needed so people will not be chilled from seeking the services that they are entitled to and that they need,” Saenz said.

Some health care providers said the notices the state sent out were helpful, but that many immigrants are still not getting full health care for fear they’ll be turned in to the INS.

“The damage has been done,” said Syliva Drew Ivie, director of T.H.E. Clinic in the Crenshaw District, which serves Latino and Asian immigrants.

“Some of our patients report they will continue to come to the clinic because they feel they are safe, but they will not go to people we refer them to for specialized care,” said Ivie, whose clinic received the state notice last week. “We also have people who are not enrolling their children in school because they feel the school is not a safe place. There is tremendous confusion.”

For information or complaints regarding Prop. 187:

Health Services: (800) 776-7187

Welfare Services: (800) 952-5253

Education: (916) 657-2453