On November 8, 1994, California voters enacted ballot Proposition 187, a measure that denies illegal immigrants access to public education and to all health services save emergency care. The winning margin was 59 percent (Gaffney, 1995, p. 228). Although implementation of the measure was blocked by an injunction on November 16, scarcely a week after the vote ("Court blocks Proposition 187," 1994, p. 981), the measure has already had a number of reported effects, ranging from increased racial harassment of Latinos (Martinez, 1995, p. 18) to the failure of an anticipated increase in illegal immigration from the interior of Mexico to materialize, in spite of that country's economic crisis (McDonnell, 1995, p. A24).
More generally, the controversy over Proposition 187, which was only sharpened by passage of the measure, has brought increased attention to the whole question of immigration, legal and illegal alike, a question fraught with issues of race, class, and economics. The issue has already had a presumptive impact on national politics. Two nationally prominent conservative Republicans, Jack Kemp and William Bennett, both of whom had been widely regarded as possible 1996 presidential prospects, sharply criticized Proposition 187 prior to its enactment and were criticized in turn by many Republicans in California (Buckley, 1994, p. 78). Both subsequently declared that they would not offer themselves as candidates for the Republican nomination, in part, arguably, because their stands on Proposition 187 rendered unlikely either man's winning the California Republican primary in 1996. On the other hand, commentator Patrick Buchanan, an early champion of the immigration issue and unabashed supporter of Proposition 187, has emerged as perhaps the strongest potential challenger to Robert Dole for the Republican presidential nomination (Decker, 1995, p. A7).
The remainder of this discussion will focus on the ethical, public p...