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So this is compassion?
George Bush's compassionate conservatism sounds a lot like Al Gore's. But are faith-based charities really the answer to America's problems?
By Debra Dickerson
[07/29/99]

Is Korea climbing back from economic collapse?
Strikes and Daewoo's near-bankruptcy undermine its political and financial turnaround.
By David Moberg
[07/29/99]

Shaheen draws a blank
After a year-long probe, the Justice Department's special counsel finds "insufficient" evidence of Whitewater witness-tampering.
By Joe Conason
[07/28/99]

Let the circus begin
Rudy Giuliani visits Little Rock to ridicule his carpetbagging New York Senate rival, Hillary Clinton.
By Suzi Parker
[07/28/99]

China's new spiritual uprising
Is the Falun Gong sect a real threat to the regime or simply a phantom menace?
By Orville Schell
[07/27/99]

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Proposition 187 was the beginning of the anti-immigrant brush fire that spread across the country between 1993 and 1996. The fact that even Davis, who makes President Clinton look like a political risk-taker, has dropped the appeal underscores just how dramatic the change in the political climate on immigration has been, both in California and across the country. "I don't think this measure would pass if it were before voters today," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the liberal National Immigration Forum in Washington. "I think in 1994 you were dealing with a unique confluence of factors. You had the World Trade Center bombings, there were Haitian boats arriving on the shores, you had incredible distrust of the government in general and there was a real perception that the government was just sitting back and doing nothing."

"The seal of the great state of California is now stamped on the death certificate of Proposition 187," crowed Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

With the country mired in a deep recession, immigration became a potent political issue. Two years later, facing a reelection campaign of his own, Clinton signed a welfare reform bill that slashed benefits for legal immigrants.

Though Proposition 187 may be legally dead, the initiative has left an indelible stamp on the political legacy of California and the nation. The issue became the cornerstone of Gov. Pete Wilson's then-lagging reelection campaign in 1994, and sent shock waves across the nation. Prominent Republicans such as Jack Kemp and William Bennett came out against the measure, while many California Republicans reluctantly supported it.

"The Republican Congress made a big mistake when it passed a welfare bill that denied benefits to legal immigrants," said Dan Schnur, spokesman for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former Wilson press secretary. "The moral underpinning of any effort to crack down on illegal immigration is strong support for legal immigration. When Congress and Clinton took away those benefits for legal immigrants, the debate changed from one of legality to one of ethnicity, which is totally inappropriate. Most Americans believe that illegal immigration is wrong and that there ought to be a crackdown on those who come into this country without proper legal authorization. Most people feel just as strongly that legal immigration is something to be rewarded and supported."

To be sure, the improvement in the American economy since 1996 has made supporting legal immigration easier. Efforts, albeit piecemeal, have been made to restore benefits to immigrants. (Most of these efforts have been aimed at legal immigrants, but some states have restored certain benefits like prenatal care for illegal immigrants as well.) Last year, the Clinton administration and the Republican-led Congress restored $818 million worth of food stamps for children and seniors. This year, the administration is backing an additional restoration of food stamps and health benefits for children and some seniors who have not had their benefits restored.

State houses have also picked up some of the slack, with 20 states implementing their own programs to make up for some of the benefits cut by the federal government. In Texas in 1997, Gov. George W. Bush backed a program that covered children and seniors that was picked up in last year's federal legislation. No new state-funded programs have been endorsed by Bush.

"The political climate here is such that Gov. Bush doesn't want to do anything really bad for immigrants, but he doesn't seem to want to do anything too good either," said Celia Hagert, nutrition policy analyst for the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Texas. "We've tried to get restorations and failed. There's just not a lot of political support for this population, and it doesn't look like we're going to get any help from the governor's office this year."

Next page | Bush: The anti-Wilson