Welfare Bill Revives Plans for Prop. 187

The welfare overhaul signed into law by President Clinton this week may breathe new life into Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot initiative that sought to bar illegal immigrants in California from getting most public services.

“There may be a whole host of areas where the objectives of Proposition 187 can be implemented now,” said Sean Walsh, spokesman for Gov. Pete Wilson, a prime proponent of the ballot initiative, which is now largely blocked by federal court order.

The new law specifically bans illegal immigrants from most federal, state and local public assistance programs--many of the same programs targeted by Proposition 187 on the state level. Gov. Pete Wilson plans to issue an executive order next week directing state agencies to comply with new restrictions.

The welfare law does not, however, deal with one of Proposition 187’s most controversial provisions: banning illegal immigrant pupils from public elementary and secondary schools.

State officials also hope the new law will be legal ammunition in their ongoing court battle to implement Proposition 187, much of which is now blocked by the courts.

“Regardless of the present legal status of Proposition 187, the new federal law has enacted much of what Proposition 187 sought to accomplish--perhaps even more,” said Daniel Kolkey, legal affairs secretary for Gov. Wilson. “Many of the objectives of Proposition 187 are now enshrined in federal law.”

Meanwhile, the team of lawyers who have successfully blocked the implementation of the ballot initiative met Friday in Los Angeles, partly to discuss the implications for the new law. “We’re looking at it closely,” said attorney Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

In addition, he said lawyers will be examining next week’s executive order from the governor’s office.

U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer has blocked implementation of most portions of Proposition 187, calling the ballot measure “an impermissible state scheme” to usurp federal authority on immigration matters. Californians voted in favor of Proposition 187 by an almost 3-2 majority after a heated campaign that helped thrust immigration into the national spotlight.

However, Judge Pfaelzer, in her November 1995 ruling, also stated that California could seek to exclude illegal immigrants from health and social service programs funded entirely by the state. State authorities are awaiting word from the judge on plans to ban illegal immigrants from two state-funded programs--prenatal care and long-term care--that state officials say cost California taxpayers about $70 million annually.

John H. Sugiyama, the senior assistant California attorney general who is heading the state legal effort to implement the ballot measure, said Friday that it was a “reasonable possibility” that the state may be back in court citing the welfare statute as a legal lever before Judge Pfaelzer in Los Angeles.

“This is a step toward ending benefits for illegal immigrants,” said John Nelson, acting press secretary to Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove). “The spirit of 187 was about ending the welfare draw and ending the special treatment for people who have broken the law.”

Assemblywoman Martha Escutia (D-Huntington Park), an opponent of Proposition 187, agreed that the federal welfare law seems to undermine the legal challenge to the initiative. “If anything, this is another way of reviving the issue” of Proposition 187,” Escutia said.

However, Yolanda Vera, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, an immigrant advocacy group in Los Angeles, said she believes that key Proposition 187-like provisions of the new law are based on questionable legality or would take years to implement.

In addition, Vera warned that any state attempt to implement new bans on social services could face a court challenge. “If the state starts cutting people off benefits because of their immigration status, they’ve got to deal with the fact that they’ve got a federal court that has been looking at the case,” Vera said.

The new welfare law incorporated many Proposition 187-type restrictions on nonemergency health and social service assistance for illegal immigrants. Like Proposition 187, the welfare law includes sections requiring verification of applicants for certain public benefits--requirements that have sent a shudder through the ranks of social service providers in Los Angeles.

And, in another nod to the California ballot measure, the welfare law also voids any state or local law restricting communication about illegal immigrants between state or local government entities and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. That provision, analysts say, was aimed at Los Angeles and other cities that have restricted police-INS cooperation.

The sections of the welfare bill blocking state aid for illegal immigrants is distinct from widely publicized portions of the bill that bar legal immigrants from receiving federal welfare and food stamp benefits. States are also given the option to ban legal immigrants from Medicaid.

Even before passage of the new welfare law, illegal immigrants were already banned from most big-ticket aid programs, including nonemergency Medicaid benefits, food stamps and cash welfare outlays for families, the aged and disabled. But the new federal law widens the ban and extends it to state and local governments.

Under the new law, illegal immigrants will only be eligible for a handful of government programs, such as emergency care, immunization and the treatment of communicable disease, school lunches, soup kitchens and short-term disaster relief.