ganization itself of the meaning of the proposition and of what would happen if it were passed.
Proposition 187 was also an initiative that while local in impact was analyzed by the national press because of its importance in the election and because of the view that its measures were draconian. In addition, there was the belief that such measures might spread to other regions. The Nation provided a succinct statement of what was embodied in Proposition 187 with reference to a person campaigning for it:
Goodman was campaigning for Proposition 187, the grandiosely titled "Save Our State" ballot initiative that, if passed this November and validated by the courts over the next several years, will use strict verification requirements to prevent California's estimated 1.7 million undocumented immigrants from partaking of every form of public welfare including nonemergency medical care, prenatal clinics and public schools. The measure would require employees at public health facilities, welfare offices, police departments and schools to demand proof of legal residency and to report those who can't produce it to the Immigration and Naturalization Service; it also calls for stiff penalties for creating or using false documents (Kadetsky 416).
An early story on the issue was printed in the Los Angeles Times in May of 1994 indicating that backers of the initiative had enough signatures, more than 600,000, to qualify the proposition for the November ballot (May 17, 1994). In May, Governor Pete Wilson indicated his support for this ballot measure, stating that it would probably provoke a lawsuit but that it was an important issue that needed to be brought to the fore (May 27, 1994). Wilson had earlier used the immigration issue himself in a television advertisement using footage of illegal immigrants crossing the border to dramatize the problem, a problem he had placed at the top of his political agenda. That ad provoked immediate ...