Plan Similar to Prop. 187 Falls Flat in Arizona

An Arizona initiative fashioned after California’s Proposition 187 has failed to win a slot on that state’s ballot in November.

The death of the Arizona proposal--called “Save Our State,” after its California progenitor--comes after a pair of immigration initiatives also failed to secure slots on this year’s California ballot. A Florida “Save Our State” plan is pending, but organizers concede it probably won’t make it onto the November ballot.

After the success two years ago of Proposition 187, the measure’s architects vowed to help create like-minded initiatives nationwide in time for this year’s national elections. But a paucity of funds, lack of organization and a general failure to galvanize voters’ interest have doomed the attempts, observers say.

Despite such setbacks, and notwithstanding a federal court order blocking implementation of most of Proposition 187, experts generally agree that advocates have been successful in “sending a message” to Washington, a central goal of their heated 1994 campaign. Since the California measure emerged, the Clinton administration has greatly bolstered immigration enforcement and Congress has fashioned major legislation.

“We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish, which was to get the issue on the national scene,” said Robert Kiley, an Orange County consultant who helped draft Proposition 187 and who advised the Arizona and Florida movements.

Proposition 187, approved by an almost 3-2 margin, would deny illegal immigrants most publicly funded benefits, including nonemergency health care, while obligating educators, police and others to report “suspected” illegal immigrants to federal authorities.

Proponents of the Arizona initiative failed to submit any of the 112,961 signatures needed by this month’s deadline, said a spokeswoman for the Arizona secretary of state’s office.

Though patterned on Proposition 187, the Arizona proposal omitted many of the California version’s most provocative elements--notably its ban on public education for illegal immigrants and its reporting requirements for police who encounter illegal immigrants. Among other things, the Arizona measure would have made employers who hire undocumented workers eligible for court action, and would have created a state verification center to help determine whether job applicants were in the country legally.

Wirt Morton, a Republican political consultant who worked on the Arizona campaign, expressed disappointment that Ron Prince, an architect of Proposition 187, did not spend more time in Arizona assisting in a campaign he helped launch. Prince, an Orange County accountant who gained national recognition through his identification with Proposition 187, traveled to Arizona on several occasions and spoke on behalf of the initiative. But Morton said Prince never followed through on a pledge to move to Arizona.

Prince, who chairs the “Save Our State” committee in California, did not return several telephone messages left at his Orange County headquarters.

Prince was also the founder of this year’s unsuccessful “Save Our State-2” initiative, which called on the California Legislature to support a proposed constitutional amendment denying automatic citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrant mothers.

The other related California ballot measure that failed to fly this year would have required the DMV to verify applicants’ status before issuing driver’s licenses and identification cards.