Posted on 08/04/2004 9:15:47 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO Moving to capitalize on lingering resentment over legislative efforts to grant driver licenses to undocumented aliens, some Republicans plan to launch a broad initiative campaign aimed at barring those in California illegally from collecting welfare, college scholarships or food stamps.
The measure, targeted for the March 2006 ballot, also would pre-empt any legislation to allow illegal immigrants to gain driver licenses.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who persuaded the Legislature to repeal such a law, is negotiating a compromise measure with Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, but no deal has been struck.
"We have to stop the incentives for coming here illegally. This is the only way to do it. The Legislature cannot be trusted," said Mike Spence, president of the California Republican Assembly, a conservative grass-roots faction of the GOP.
The initiative is a narrowed version of the polarizing Proposition 187 approved by voters in 1994.
The courts and mediation later invalidated much of Proposition 187, allowing children of illegal immigrants to attend school and receive medical care.
Spence said the new initiative would exempt those services required by the courts.
Moderate Republicans have worked to mend seriously damaged relations with Latino voters, many of whom viewed Proposition 187 as a direct attack. A "son of 187" could attract conservatives, but erase GOP gains among Latinos as early as this November's election.
If approved by voters, the initiative would bar undocumented immigrants from collecting retirement, welfare, unemployment or disability checks. They would not qualify for housing subsidies or food stamps. And they would no longer be eligible for cheaper in-state college tuition or receive loans and scholarships.
"This is a time for us to bring our country together and look for ways to build unity, not division," Cedillo said when asked about the initiative.
"Immigrants are not here for services. They're here to work," he said.
Spence said that the state is broke and cannot afford to provide services to those who crossed the border illegally.
"It's more than the driver's license," he said. "We're running deficits."
Spence is expected to be joined by Assemblyman Mark Wyland, R-Del Mar, in unveiling the initiative today in Sacramento. They need about 600,000 signatures of registered voters to put the measure on the ballot.
Spence's group has proven it has the capability to follow through. It collected more than enough signatures on a referendum to overturn a driver-license bill signed by then-Gov. Gray Davis. The referendum was dropped after Davis' recall and Schwarzenegger's historic election. Schwarzenegger repealed the law soon after his election.
CA: GOP group plans bill to bar aid for illegal immigrants (California Republican Assembly)
Bush isn't going to like that.
At some point, this must come to a head and the activist judges must be stopped from silencing the people's wills should they choose to continue to disenfranchise voters and their votes that emphatically are cast to stop the madness..
WE need this on the ballot in Missouri. Too many illegal imigrants here.
Back Row (left to right): Ginsburg, Souter, Thomas, Breyer
Front Row (left to right): Scalia, Stevens, Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy
sovereignty
Variant(s): also sovranty /-tE/
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
Etymology: Middle English soverainte, from Middle French soveraineté, from Old French, from soverain
Date: 14th century
1 obsolete : supreme excellence or an example of it
2 a : supreme power especially over a body politic b : freedom from external control : AUTONOMY c : controlling influence
3 : one that is SOVEREIGN; especially : an autonomous state
The illegal problem is up to the citizens, and the citizens cannot expect any help from most politicians. When the shooting starts, and it will, the b**tard pols will even side with the aliens.
A falsehood deftly inserted into the article. A single judge ruled against Prop 187 and Gray Davis rolled over faster than a two-dollar whore at the sight of a ten-spot and refused to fight for it.
Thanks for the image.
WE need to stop the hemorrhaging at the border.
When the petitions are available to download, I'll be happy to get fifty signatures with no problems, probably more.
On this issue I think fortunately "he isn't eligible to vote in this state."
He was opposed to our Prop.187 too.
About da*n time, too. How many kids could have summer work in the fields if Mexicans weren't sopping up the jobs? My mother worked the tobacco fields in Connecticut when she was in college. It didn't hurt her.
I can hear them running to Arizona already.
Ping
"Immigrants are not here for services. They're here to work."
Fine--then you have nothing to worry about. You don't care if it passes, since immigrants aren't using those services anyway. Right, Cedillo?
The Democrats are afraid of losing a large voting bloc if this constitutional amendment passes. They're already ginning up the anti-immigrant and anti-Latino garbage.
I think it failed for lack of sufficient time. We've got six months to place it on the March 2006 primary ballot. Let's roll!
Priceless quote from the guy who wants to give you know whom drivers' licenses. If they are here to work, there should be no problem with their not mooching off the taxpayers. Something I'm sure Gil Cedillo can appreciate.
The time and signature requirements will be the same. Perhaps they will be more successful this time if they have a better idea of what to expect. But, maybe they'll again be overshadowed, this time by the upcoming general election campaign for the next three months; there are 14 propositions on this ballot.
Money and media exposure were definitely different in 1994. There was no support from the GOP for the expired effort this year, unlike in 1994 when the GOP helped financially (for the statutory initiative, which required only 5% of the last vote for Governor) and when Governor Pete Wilson campaigned strongly for it.
This year there was no money for paid signature gatherers or ads, since the GOP is different today, but perhaps the SOS people had been too optimistic about eexpecting any GOP support. Without much exposure, there wasn't sufficient interest.
The website of the expired effort doesn't have the information anymore http://www.save187.com/. Ron Prince was the author of the original 187 and this year's earlier SOS effort. I doubt there were problems with the writing; besides, even if there were, it probably wouldn't have affected the signature gathering much.
The medical care and K-12 education are already mandated by the feds. If they included those in the initiative and it passed, Maldef/Raza/Mecha/etc. would immediately litigate the entire bill. Plus, it might be harder to pass.
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