Our home page will concentrate on the key issues that have risen since the passing of Proposition 187 . We will first discuss the clauses of Proposition 187. Then we will offer our two opposing views on the manner in which illegal immigrants affect California and the United States .In conclusion, we will discuss our proposals on how the immigration problem can be alleviated.

Proposition 187 : Text of the proposal

Any person who manufactures, distributes, or sells documents to conceal the true citizenship or resident alien status of another person is guilty of a felony, and shall be punishedby imprisonment in the state prison for five years or by a fine of seventy-five thousand dollars.... Any person who uses false documents to conceal his or her true citizenship or resident alien status is guilty of a felony, and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for five years or by a fine of twenty-five thousand dollars.... No public elementary or secondary school shall admit, or permit the attendance of, any child who is not a citizen of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted as a permanent resident, or persons who are otherwise authorized to be present in the United States.... In order to carry out the intention of the People of California that , excepting emergency medical care as required by federal law, only citizens of the United States and aliens lawfully admitted to the United States may receive the benefits of publicly-funded health care.

REASONS TO THROW OUT PROPOSITION 187:

News of the passage of proposition 187 has been received with mixed feelings and controversy not only in California, but throughout the United States as well. Due to the unconstitutional nature of the California law, it is necessary that it be thrown out.

Generally, this initiative prohibits state and local government agencies from providing publicly funded education, health care, welfare benefits, or social services to any person that they do not verify as either a U.S. citizen or a person legally admitted to the Unites States. The measure also requires state and local agencies to report suspected illegal immigrants to the INS (Immigration and Naturalization services) and certain state officials. (Reno 1994)

Citizens advocating the proposition claim that illegal immigrants have driven taxes up and overstrained the government resources currently available. Although the estimated 1.4 to 2 million unreported citizens are thought to cause around 2 billion dollars in spending by the US government; they are also the reason for a 25 to 30 billion dollar surplus from income and property taxes. Also, most illegal immigrants do not seek out government aid in the form of food stamps or medical assistance for fear of being discovered. llegal immigrants are not the huge problem that some persons believe. Illegal immigrants constitute only 1% of the total population that seeks aid from the government. These statistics prove that there are others who are a much larger burden for the US. Advocates of this proposition are only searching for a scapegoat for the economic hardship in California. Another way that illegal immigrants add to the well being of the United States is they provide the much needed labor for industry. ( The Dallas Morning News,Time 47, Stern 1994). Since these people provide a much needed service to the US they deserve education and equal treatment. Even though arguments above advocating the proposition seem valid, they are hypocritical and racist and need to be disregarded as only partially true. Proposition 187 will only cause more problems for California therefore it needs to be revoked.

REASONS TO IMPLEMENT A LAW LIKE PROPOSITION 187:

Seven States bear the burden of providing federally mandated services to 86 percent of the four million illegal aliens in the United States. The large majority of people that come to this country without papersor illegaly overstay their valid visa head to the same states: California, Florida, Texas, New York, Arizona, Illinois, and New Jersey. An investigation done by the Urban Institute concluded that in an average year,illegal aliens pay state income, sales, and property taxes to those states totaling $1.9 billion. But the states, in turn, must provide tree very expensive services. Educating undocumented children is the firstarea. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in the case of "Plyer vs. Doe") that excluding children who are illegal immigrants from public schools violates the federal constitution(turbogopher). The Urban Institute researched these seven jurisdictions and concluded that education of illegal aliens amounted to $3.1 billlion. The second expensive service that the states provide is Medicaid. The Urban Institute concluded that the costs of covering these illegal immigrants for emergency services and childbirth costs $422 million. Third, providing prison facilities for tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who commit crimes here requires expenditures of 471.4 million (Washington Post A14). Providing these sevices has cost the states several billion dollars. Under the government's mulish immigration policy, a federal border patrol is used to keep out illegal immigrants, while the federal government requires the states to providefree health care, education, and other benefits to illegal immigrants. These seem to be some powerfulincentives for slipping into our country illegally. Since it is the federal government's job to enforce our immigration laws, they should be responsible for the costs the states incurr due to the inability of the federal government to protect our borders.

KevinŐs Proposal

It is my proposal that since immigration policy, both legal and illegal, is the duty of the federal government, it is unfair to make Texas, California, and Florida which bear the burden of most illegal immigrants, pay for the government's federally mandated services. Because of the government's inability to effectively control the flow of illegal immigrants crossing our border, they should reimburse Texas for the expenses we have totaled in providing these services to illegal aliens. Reimbursing the states is only a small portion of what the federal government must do to relieve the burden that illegal immigrants have put on this nation. The big question is how to persuade other illegal immigrants from coming, and what to do with the ones already here. The main goal here is to deny illegal immigrants jobs\ and public benefits, which is the reason why they come to the United States in the first place. One the main problems is that the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) requires employers to accept any of 29 different documents as proof of work authorization. Counterfeit documents are very common and are available in Mexico and most major cities in the U.S., often for as little as $20 (Lempres p.52). The federal government needs to issue fraud-proof cards that prove American citizenship. My proposal is to issue a card, with the picture of the person and his fingerprint. A magnetic strip would be on the back to read the status of that person. Almost like a credit card. New technology would have to be used so that when someone applies for a job, the employer could ask for their card. Employers would have to have machines that could read the card and be able to match the fingerprints. I cannot fairly estimate how much machinery and implementation of this process would cost, but the long run benefits of proper identification should save the tax payers of America billions. Placing a penny increase on both cigarettes and alcohol could be one of the measures used to help finance these costs. Everyone in the U.S. will have to provide this card in order to take up a new job or receive any government benefits. I realize this will be a very costly process, but it must be done to make up for the years of inadequate enforcement of our immigration laws. Government benefits will be restricted to legal citizens of America.

The next step is for government to increase the number of border patrols. I believe we definitely need to increase the number of patrols in the areas where most illegal crossings occur. The Border Patrol estimates that over ninety percent of its total apprehensions occur in just 100 miles of border segments. Two of the most popular areas are San Diego and El Paso. Increasing the number of border patrols in these areas will be extremely effective because the Mexican terrain only allows a few spots for crossing. Forty percent of the Border Patrol's total apprehensions occur in a 13 mile radius near San Diego. The Border Patrol recently experimented with increasing the number of patrols in El Paso. This was a focused effort to try to persuade illegal immigrants from crossing and to apprehend those that do. Local polls indicated an amazing 98 percent approval of the operation (Lempres p.53). In these two areas we have 3,461 agents (Puente A3). Bill Clinton, speaking on his 1995 budget, said, "Finally, the budget will significantly improve border security and will upgrade efforts to restrain illegal immigration." In his budget proposal, Clinton asked for $45 million and up to 600 agents to deter illegal entry across the border (Whitehouse 1994). I believe adding 600 new agents is insufficient. We need to at least add 600 new agents in these two crucial cities and increase overall enforcement to the point that illegal crossings are not even attempted. I believe adding Border Patrol's in these areas will be very effective, because illegal crossings are so concentrated.

Another reason that so many illegal immigrants come to the U.S. is because of the fact that anyone born in this country is automatically granted citizenship. Approximately two of every three babies born in L.A. County hospitals are born to illegal aliens. I believe we need to amend the Constitution so that at least one parent has to be an American citizen for the child to be a citizen.

OTHER SOLUTIONS:

It is clearly apparent that there needs to be some sort of control of the borders in the United States . Proposition 187 alone will not accomplish this. Mexican resident Salinas has proposed that there be some form of dual border control by the US and Mexico. He advocates stronger police work at the crossing points and a possible "guest worker" program. The guest worker program will allow Mexican citizens the right to work in the US without citizenship. This program "will legitimize Mexican worker's presence here and thereby reduce the incidence of exploitation" (The Fresno Bee 1994). Past attempts to curb illegal immigrants haver had little sucess. ŇThe Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, was intended to reduce the attraction of employment in this nation for non-citizens.Ó (Whitehouse 1994) However, these and other border enforcment efforts have not been forcefully implemented. This leads to the conclusion that the most efficient and simple solution for border control is for the federal government to enforce itŐs policies more adamantly than in years past. By stopping the inflow of immigrants to the United States the debate about proposition 187 would be unnecessary.