GOP Lawmakers, Group Criticize Prop. 187 Judge

A group of 30 GOP legislators joined a Virginia-based conservative advocacy group Wednesday in trying to pressure the federal judge who has placed Proposition 187--the anti-illegal immigrant measure approved by voters nearly two years ago--on hold.

Some of the state senators and Assembly members accused Los Angeles U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer of playing politics in an election year and said the delay was foot-dragging by a “liberal” judge. They said the delay appeared to be designed to hurt their reelection chances in November.

Pfaelzer last year temporarily halted implementation of Proposition 187, saying large parts of the measure--which called for banning illegal immigrants from receiving public education, nonemergency health care and social welfare services--were in conflict with federal laws.

The judge’s action was based on a lawsuit that questioned the initiative’s constitutionality. She could not be reached for comment.

While the GOP legislators took the judge to task, Republican Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, who is defending the initiative in the lawsuit, did not.

“We are disappointed that things are going so slowly, but we can’t say it’s any one person’s fault,” said Lungren’s spokesman, Matt Ross. It was only last month, Ross said, that the attorney general’s office submitted to Pfaelzer documents that she needs to examine before she makes a final ruling.

No legislator interviewed Wednesday said the delay would be his or her undoing at the polls, but all said that voters expected more action from their elected representatives on Proposition 187.

Assemblyman Brett Granlund (R-Yucaipa) said letters have poured in from his district asking, “What are you doing to implement Proposition 187?”

Tom J. Bordonaro Jr. (R-Paso Robles) said the “No. 1 issue” voiced at town hall meetings in his district was the failure to implement Proposition 187.

Although the fate of Proposition 187 rests with the courts and not the Legislature, Bordonaro said, “people are frustrated that their voices are not being heard” and the blame is “spilling over” to legislators.

Six of the legislators were joined at a news conference Wednesday by officials of the Legal Affairs Council, the advocacy group from Fairfax, Va., that says implementation of Proposition 187 is important nationally to rein in illegal immigration.

Richard A. Delgaudio, the group’s president, said that although Proposition 187 is not on the ballot, “it is something that will be discussed [by voters]” and could influence them when they vote for candidates in November.

That is why, he said, lawmakers are “speaking out on this topic” now.

Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, a main plaintiff in the court challenge to Proposition 187, said legislators will be unable to influence the court’s decision.

“There are certain rights that all are entitled to” that are defended in courts of law where constitutional initiatives are rightfully taken for review, she said, “and we believe Proposition 187 is unconstitutional.”

Together with Delgaudio’s group--which spent $300,000 bankrolling Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North’s legal defense of criminal charges growing out the Iran-Contra scandal--the legislators have pledged their names to be part of a proposed friend of the court brief siding with Lungren and Gov. Pete Wilson in the Proposition 187 legal battle.