In California we had just voted on Prop 187, so I think you quite have your facts straight.
(Zechariah probably knows this...) Senator Hayakawa started US English in 1983, having EVERYTHING to do with immigration. The issue has been there, it’s just that the powerful and the liberal ones could shut us down easily by crying the “R” word. It took a brave man, such as the senator, to go against the crowd.
It’s only been recently that people started realizing we wouldn’t melt when the pro-open border lobby calls us names.
Yes, an issue in CA...the rest of the country told us to pound sand.