Posted on 03/26/2004 6:11:48 PM PST by calcowgirl
Heading for the Finish Line
Ron Prince, sponsor of the Save Our State (SOS) Initiative, and an author of the original Proposition 187, has been hitting the talk radio circuit the past few days to garner support and solicit signatures to qualify an Initiative Consititutional Amendment for the November 2004 ballot. Andy Ramirez, SOS Media Director, and a prior Democrat nominee for the State Assembly, has also been working the airwaves helping to get the message out. With an April 15 deadline for gathering signatures rapidly approaching, they are soliciting immediate support from Californians. Prince told KFI last night: "We need every signature we can get, as fast as we can get them."
To qualify for the ballot, they need roughly 600,000 signatures. Their objective is to get 800,000 by April 15 (they have gathered approximately 400,000 to date). Signatures must be submitted to the Secretary of State by April 29, 2004 for certification. According to Prince, the Save our State website has been getting plenty of 'hits' from internet users downloading the petitions as things are heating up in the final month. He noted that they are relying heavily on the internet, as almost all people in California have access to a computer to download petitions, or at least have access to someone else who can download them. If people do not have computer access, they can request petitions in the mail by calling (714) 899-9631. In Southern California, signature gatherers will also be in the following locations this weekend (March 27, 28):
Orange County Fairgrounds (Crossroads Of The West Gun Show )
Costa Mesa, CA. - Saturday and SundayBrea Mall
Brea, CA. - Saturday and Sunday
Donations and Fundraising
According to Prince, the Save our State Initiative has currently raised approximately $40,000, with money starting to come in at an accelerated rate. While money is important and does help, he indicated that it is most important to a campaign if it is hiring paid signature gatherers (which normally requires millions of dollars, not thousands). The SOS campaign is relying primarily on the internet and volunteers. But small donations can make a difference. He noted that the original Proposition 187 campaign raised $317,000 with the average donation being only $23.00.
Save our State Intiative vs. Proposition 187
What will the Save Our State Initiative do? Prince highlighted the following key provisions:
--Require providers of public health and other services to verify applicants' legal residence status
--Require the state to verify the legal residence status of applicants when obtaining driver's licenses.
--Prohibit the state from accepting foreign-issued identification cards, such as Mexico's widely used matricula as legal identification.
--Make it a misdemeanor for state and local officials, such as police officers, not to report immigration law violations to federal authorities.
Unlike the original Proposition 187, the bill does not address K-12 public education for illegal immigrants. It also does not affect emergency healthcare (nor did Proposition 187, a ‘misnomer’ according to Prince.) Also not affected would be services to children of illegal immigrants who were born in the United States, as they would have legal status. Public benefits that would not be available to illegal aliens as a result of this initiave include items such as subsidized housing, non-emergency healthcare, free or instate tuition and other college aid, etc.
Prince’s initial response when asked the difference between the SOS Initiative and Proposition 187 was “This one is legal”. He clarified that they had gained knowledge throughout the Proposition 187 legal challenges and in fact believes their current position may have been strengthened by some of those decisions. He does not forsee any legal challenges to this Proposition.
Proposition 187 did not include any type of enforcement provision as those included in the SOS Initiative. While State law currently prohibits providing many of these services to those without valid legal status, some public entities have been less than diligent about verification. Prince noted circumstances where individuals have presented identification that is believed to be ‘phony’, and employees have been told not to worry about it. “No one cares”, he said. “Public employees have a moral, civic, and fiduciary responsibiltiy to the people of California.” With the SOS Initiative, public officials would be held accountable by making it a misdemeanor to not report violations to federal authorities.
The prohibition of recognizing foreign issued identification cards would apply to all public entities. It would not prohibit private entities from accepting cards such as the Matricula Consular cards. He mentioned both Bank of America and Wells Fargo as entities that currently recognized the cards. Los Angeles County has been allowing Matricula Consular Cards from Mexico as valid identification on a trial basis and announced recently they would be expanding that acceptance to all countries with Consuls in Los Angeles. Prince referred to the move as creating the new "World Center for Terrorism". Success of the SOS Initiative will preclude the widespread recognition of these cards.
While many recent reports have indicated that Pete Wilson and other politicos were strong supporters of Proposition 187, Prince provided some background. He said that their support had been solicited early in the campaign, Wilson was not in favor of it nor did others in Sacramento. Wilson's support did not come "until 6 weeks before the election, when he was still trailing Kathleen Brown by 22 points." His last-minute support of the Initiative, beginning in September, propelled him into the Governorship.
The Cost of Illegal Immigration
On a radio show earlier this week, Ramirez summarized the issue well: "Social services are causing our state to go broke." While neither he nor Prince had an overall estimate of the cost of illegal immigration to the state, he did offer a few staggering facts and figures on the effect of immigration on the states financial situtation.
Los Angeles County is currently attempting to raise taxes to fund jails. To meet budget objectives, news reports yesterday disclosed that the County is granting early release to 130 prisoners per day. Last year, 47,500 inmates in the County were released after serving a fraction of their sentences. Prince advised that 28% of the jail population in Los Angeles County are illegal immigrants, citing figures from the County itself.While K-12 education is not addressed by this initiative, the number of children of illegal aliens in the state and the effect on the State Budget deficit cannot be ignored. According to Prince, 1,000,000 children of illegal aliens are estimated to attend California schools. At the approximate average school funding of $9,000 per student, that equates to $9 Billion per year.
He also mentioned the overuse of emergency rooms, and the resulting burden on hospitals. Many hospitals have gone bankrupt or are being closed.
Overall, Prince said "whether the cost is $10 dollars or $10 billion, it doesn't really matter. They are violating federal law". He pointed out that whether savings are $5 billion or $15 billion, the absence of those costs would certainly put the state in a more favorable financial position.
Amnesty Politics
Prince is confident that the measure will pass if put to a vote in November. He said current polls show support of more than 70% of voters. He also indicated it sends a strong message to Washington regarding amnesty discussions and would severely weaken support for programs under consideration. However, Prince fears what will happen if it doesn't make the ballot, as it will send a message that "we don't have the clout to stop them." If it doesn't pass, he said illegal immigrants will have drivers licenses next year and ..."we WILL have an amnesty as those in Washington will feel empowered."
Schwarzenegger and Cedillo
Governor Schwarzenegger's spokesperson has said he would not comment on any proposed ballot measure until it qualified for the ballot. But the Governor is already on record, having said he "is working with" Senator Gil Cedillo to come up with a bill and other affirmative comments. (See quotes and link to audio below). In recent weeks, Senator Cedillo has appeared on various hispanic radio programs saying that he had a "deal" with the Governor and predicting that a bill will be passed. Prince seemed mystified. "I don't know what kind of game [Governor Schwarzenegger] is playing", Prince said. He appears to be trying to "dance around the issue... and play both sides of the fence. He needs to come off the fence."
Apparently the Governor recently released "Talking Points" offering a conclusion that he has made "no deal" with Cedillo. If he hasn't made a deal, then why does he not publicly respond to Cedillo's comments? Prince wonders why the Governor does not state unequivocally "Cedillo is not correct. I am not supporting this measure". He adds, "By not doing so, by his failure to come forward, one can only conclude that the Governor supports giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens."
SB 1160, is the drivers license bill Cedillo introduced in the Legislature. "If SB 1160 were to pass in the next week", Prince said "there would be such an outcry" that hundreds of thousands of people would be looking to download or sign petitions. He compares it to the reaction of the people when Gray Davis last summer signed SB 60, the initial law giving illegal aliens the right to hold a drivers license. A campaign was launched and 500,000 signatures were gathered in fewer than 90 days for a referendum. The Legislature instead repealed SB 60.
Prince appeared skeptical of the discussions regarding security, safety, and particularly insurance. Given that the illegal alien population is believed to hold low paying jobs and rely heavily on other state subsidies, their ability to afford automobile insurance seems dubious. Prince offered the next possible argument to be made by those supporting SB 1160, implying new publicly funded insurance benefits for illegal aliens: "Now that they're on the road, you want to make sure they're insured don't you? That's where this is going. If we fail [on the SOS Initiative], it isn't just drivers licenses we're talking about here.
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From the Secretary of State Website:
SAVE OUR STATE INITIATIVE
Public Benefits. Driver's License. Eligibility.
Immigration Status and Identity Verification.
Initiative Constitutional Amendment.
Summary Date: 12/01/03
Circulation Deadline: 04/29/04
Signatures Required: 598,105
Proponent: Ron Prince, (714) 899-9631Amends Constitution to require providers of public benefits to verify whether applicants are lawfully present in the United States.
Prohibits state or local public benefits for any aliens classified as ineligible under federal law.
Requires state and local officials to report immigration law violations to federal authorities; failure to report is a misdemeanor.
Requires state to verify driver's license applicant's identity and lawful presence in United States.
Prohibits the state and its political subdivisions from accepting identification documents not issued by a state or federal jurisdiction.
Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: This measure could result in increased annual costs to the state and local governments in the tens of millions of dollars to verify citizenship or immigration status of persons receiving specified public services. This measure could also result in program savings over $100 million annually to the state and local governments, primarily counties, due to reduced expenditures for certain public services
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The deadline to return petitions to the campaign is April 15, 2004. Please send in petitions as soon as they are completed so as to prevent any unforeseen delays. It will also assist us in maintaining an accurate count...Thank you.
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1. How is this initiative different from Prop 187?
It doesn’t include Prop 187’s prohibition of public schooling for illegal aliens, it only addresses the problem of public benefits for illegals. By pursuing education separately as a lawsuit in Federal court, we remove the issue of constitutionality for the rest of the measure. Federal law allows us to deny public benefits to illegals, if we want to. But we’re required to pass a law to say so. This new measure does exactly that.
2. What will this initiative do?
It will deny public benefits to any applicants who aren’t in the United States legally, requiring public employees who distribute those benefits to verify the immigration status of everyone, regardless of race or national origin, before benefits can be given. It will also prevent illegal aliens from getting driver’s licenses that could otherwise indicate legal residency and qualify them for public benefits. And finally, it will prevent public agencies from using unverified foreign ID cards (such as the Matricular Consular) for identity purposes in California.
3. How many signatures do you need to qualify for the ballot?
We need 598,000 valid signatures.
4. When can we vote on this?
If we gather the necessary signatures, we’ll be on the ballot in November.
5. Why are you doing this now?
Illegal immigration has gotten progressively worse since 1994. Now, just about everybody understand the extent of the problem. The referendum against driver’s licenses for illegal aliens (SB 60) collected half a million signatures in just a few weeks. That proved that the people can take action when they need to. Now is the time for action!
6. How do you plan to get the signatures?
The internet is the principle tool that we have. We don’t have any paid staff, we’re all volunteers; so we need as many people as possible downloading the petition and giving it out to others. We’re also hoping to pay for signatures if we can raise enough money. That would guarantee that we will qualify for the ballot.
7. What if I can’t download the petition?
Let us know if you have a problem, we can send the petition to you as an e-mail attachment, which should help solve the problem, or we can mail it to you. Either way, we want to be sure that you have a petition, and as many copies of it as you need.
8. What is the history of Prop 187?
Ten years after Prop 187 was passed by nearly 60% of the voters, the qualification of this new measure for the ballot in November of 2004 will finally give Californians an opportunity to fulfill the will of the people and to correct an injustice that denied them their “day in court”.After a lengthy legal challenge by the ACLU, the Attorney General gave in and agreed to a “Summary Judgment” requested by the ACLU, promising to appeal the case to a higher court. But there was no appeal. Gray Davis settled the case “out of court” in a mediated agreement, and Prop 187 was killed in a back room deal.
None of the supporters of Prop 187 were allowed to speak in its defense and the only evidence presented by the State, a series of reports by public agencies showing how the measure could be implemented constitutionally, was sealed by the judge; the public was not allowed to see it.
The voters were outmaneuvered by the politicians, but the recall of the Governor who committed this travesty has changed the political landscape. It’s a new day in California. The people are back, and they’re stronger than ever.
The recall was followed up by the repeal of SB 60, a law giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Knowing that the vast majority of Californians disapproved of SB 60’s intent, the legislature passed it anyway, until the people gathered enough signatures to force a referendum.
To prevent the issue from being voted on in March; the legislature repealed SB 60. But now we know that the same law will be introduced again next year. The politicians have pulled another “fast one” on the people; they must be stopped. Only a constitutional amendment will prevent them from doing this again. The new version of Prop 187 will resolve this problem once and for all.
Our new proposed law will prevent illegal aliens from getting California driver’s licenses and will prohibit the use of “Matricular Consular” cards, and other foreign issued documents intended solely for use by illegal aliens, and not even accepted in their own countries.
One of the reasons why illegal aliens want legitimate documents is to show residency, which will, in turn, make it easier for them to obtain public benefits.
Federal law says that it is a “compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits”. Federal law denies non-emergency public benefits to illegals and California should follow that example. The State of California cannot continue to encourage illegal immigration and at the same time, expect the federal government to be able to secure our borders. It isn’t possible.
We must bring State law into alignment with federal guidelines, and finally begin to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in support of national immigration policy.
*Source: Save187.com
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Save our State Campaign
Download petitions, make donations, read current news, or volunteer to help.
California Secretary of State - Petitions in Circulation
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Schwarzenegger January Interview with Univision:
Schwarzenegger: We are right now in the middle of working very hard with Senator Cedillo. My staff and his staff. Everyone is working together. And we are absolutely positive that we will come up with a great bill. With his help and with my team's help, I think we will work it out. So there's, uh, really a good move forward.---------------------------Interviewer: How would you deal with more conservative members of the legislature...?
Schwarzenegger: Again, it's one of those things where we all have to get together and see that this is a good idea and this is the way to move forward. So, I am talking to my Republican friends all the time about it, and also to my Democratic friends. We will do it.
Click HERE to Listen to AudioTape
Washington Times, 3/02/04
---------------------------"Our staffs have met, and they're working on this together,"
said Vincent Salido, spokesman for the Republican governor
Sacramento Bee - Daniel Weintraub Weblog 12/03/03
Arnold on drivers licenses (FR Link)
Now that SB 60, the illegal immigrants' drivers license bill, is about to be repealed, speculation shifts to exactly what Schwarzenegger envisions as the next move on this issue. He has said since the campaign that he was open to some sort of compromise. In an interview Monday with Univision 19 anchor Pablo Espinoza, the governor suggests that he will agree to legislation giving illegal immigrants licenses as long as they are able to show proof of insurance, undergo background checks and have their digital fingerprints recorded. Here is a transcript of the interview provided by the station:Reporter: "You did say that to me when we talked one on one (Sept. 6, 2003) that you would consider a package deal that would have included a requirement of insurance for those people that are going to get the drivers license. That I know is something that you believe in. Do you also believe that all undocumented immigrants will be able to get a drivers license if they present insurance, if they have a background check, fingerprints?Governor: "Absolutely...yes. This is what we are going to work on. This is what we are going to talk about, but right now the most important thing is to get this passed (the repeal of SB 60) so we can move to other issues. I think Senator Cedillo was extremely gracious and helpful with this whole thing. He is a great leader, he understood what would be the best thing for California; rather than just doing an immediate fix, but to make everybody happy. It doesn't make sense if the majority of Californians run around and hate the idea of undocumented immigrants having drivers licenses because there is no background check, because it doesn't solve the problem with insurance. Let's do it the right way, let's make every Californian happy and let's make the undocumented immigrants happy." [end extensive excerpt]
"They" is WE!
Let's get movin'! Get signatures from your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers.
Also not affected would be services to children of illegal immigrants who were born in the United States, as they would have legal status.
They have a limited legal status. A 1982 SCOTUS decision afforded them access to certain publicly funded services (health, education and certain welfare benefits) but they are still subject to deportation if they are the minor children of illegal aliens, acting as their sole providers, who are apprehended for immigration violations.
local VFW or veterans associations (more patriotic than the average bear)
professional drivers like truckers, UPS, etc. (they stand to face cheap labor competition for their jobs)
student Republican organizations (I'm sure some Democrat students are sympathetic, but don't send if you do not know since they could sabotage our efforts)
Don't bother with union leaders. They are against enforcing immigration law. Illegal aliens empower them, with numbers and membership dues.
Here are three website links I generated for this effort. Use at your discretion. You might consider e-mailing the links to people. Out of hundreds of e-mails I have sent, I have had only one negative response.
Here are three posters I generated for this effort. You might consider handing them out to people.
Good luck, y'all. Here is hoping for the best.
I collected a few more signatures myself this weeked :D
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