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California hosts about 40% of the nation's estimated 3.4 million illegal immigrants. "We have to defend ourselves against invaders," said statistician Barbara Coe, co-chair of the initiative. "The militant Mexican- American groups want to take back California. Our children cannot get an education, because their classes are jammed with illegals. In many classes only 20 minutes of English is spoken an hour." Coe has had inquiries about expanding her group to 20 other states. Repercussions were felt in Colorado and Texas last week as Hispanics protested the vote, some even vowing to boycott California goods.
Whether the proposition survives legal challenges or not, it should spur better enforcement of existing laws. Although it is a crime to hire illegal aliens, employers are rarely prosecuted. And the INS, underfunded and disorganized, would be hard put to deal with all the undocumented immigrants that 187 could dump in its lap.
The deeper issue is what happens to the California dream, the hope that Lynne Wiswall's kindergartners can wave their American flags with pride, the expectation that more than a century after the territory was seized from Mexico, California's multiethnic citizens could live in peace. The 187 proponents "have forgotten that this piece of land belonged to Mexico," said housewife Yolanda Rivera, emerging from a polling booth on Los Angeles' Cesar Chavez Avenue. "We are all immigrants -- even the ones who came on the Mayflower. We all came to try to get ahead, and we all deserve that opportunity."