CAMARILLO : Author to Challenge Tenets of Prop. 187

A university professor and author will challenge the underlying assumptions that fueled the passage of Proposition 187 in a lecture Monday before the World Affairs Council of Ventura County.

Although he believes current immigration policies are not working, Sanford Ungar, author of “Fresh Blood: The New American Immigrants,” calls Proposition 187 “simple-minded.” Voters last year overwhelmingly supported the ballot measure, aimed at cutting public education and a variety of social services to illegal immigrants.

After four years of interviewing immigrants in the United States, Ungar concludes in his book that the economic and social impacts of this decade’s immigrants are much milder than the impact of immigrants at the turn of the century.

Ungar is Dean of the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. He has also worked for 25 years as a print and broadcast journalist. He has been a co-host for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” a staff writer for the Washington Post and managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine.

His lecture is part of a speaker series sponsored by the nonprofit World Affairs Council of Ventura County, which was formed in 1990 to promote education in international issues.

The lecture starts at 6:45 p.m. at Ottavio’s Banquet Center in Camarillo. Cocktails and a light buffet will begin at 6 p.m. For more information call (805) 449-9953.