I quite agree. I was not impressed with the easy dismissal of Prop 187. In fact a judge vacated the proposition that was passed by over two thirds of the voters. It was considerably later that the gov dropped the legal appeal and let the matter go away. (The people should never have elected him if they wanted the lawsuit to continue.)
What occurred as a result was that California's hispanics got better organized joined the democrat side, and with the proposition as proof that the gringos were against them they changed the landscape of the state to what it is today. A very blue state. With elections close everywhere the GOP cannot afford to piss of a voting bloc like this proposition did. So this is the reason the GOP is going light on illegal immigration. (Even though lots of hispanics who are here legally realize that the illegals give everyone a bad name).
As for the crop picking - low labor cost being a real benefit to the state. I believe the figures are not there. The state loses much more than the benefits it gets when failing schools and higher crime rates and police costs are included. Of course many schools would have to be closed if the hispanic students were suddenly not there. And this is why the teachers union is in favor of this influx even if it makes it difficult to run classrooms sometimes.
The only way the GOP can avoid angering a voting bloc like Prop 187 allegedly did is to pray that liars be struck dead. It was a lying, full-court, wall-to-wall, 24/7 attack, attack, attack! against Prop 187.
The attack, attack, attack! continues to this day and I remind everyone that Mexico's representatives who are prominent in California's politics, like Art Torres, still crow that Prop 187 was "white America's last gasp."
So I have to disagree with that part. The Republicans usually get around 30 percent of the vote of Americans of Hispanic origin if I remember correctly. That is about the percentage that voted for Prop 187. There may have been a little more in 2004 but I counter that almost fifty percent of Americans of Hispanic origin voted for Arizona's Prop 200.
I emphasize Americans because I swear I do not see them as part of a foreign voting block -- though I am not saying that you intended to imply that we should bow to foreigners' and internationalists' wants and desires.
I remember that 1994 campaign. In those days I had a TV. It was a full-court, 24/7 attack, attack, attack! One anti-Prop 187 group offered David Duke a large sum of money to attend a discussion "forum" on Prop 187 -- he of course was to argue for Prop 187 as the camera rolled.
Attack, attack, attack! Moderate Republicans like Jack Kemp and Jeb Bush joined in the attack, attack, attack! MSM employees helped lead the attack, attack, attack!
The only ad for Prop 187 that I remember was the "revolving door" ad. It was very effective showing the TRUTH that foreigners come and go as they please. That was TRUE. Yet, the attack, attack, attack! campaign has spun the ad to be one of the worst, most vicious, bigoted ads ever produced.