The extended entry contains a 1995 article about Proposition 187, including the "Latino Summit Response". More later.

Paper: The Dallas Morning News
Title: Proposition 187 likely to spur protracted fight - Both sides say
measure already having big effect
Author: Frank Trejo
Date: January 30, 1995
Section: NEWS
Page: 1A

LOS ANGELES - Just a couple of months after one of the most divisive
electoral battles in California history, both sides have reached
agreement on one point:

Proposition 187, the ballot initiative limiting benefits to
undocumented immigrants, already has had profound and possibly lasting
effects.Even though legal challenges have prevented its implementation,
California residents say the measure is a wake-up call for the state and the
nation.

Some say it has given rise to racism with scores of people being
denied services or harassed. Others say the proposition served notice
that taxpayers no longer will tolerate illegal immigration.

Some say it has revived the Chicano rights movement, led once again
by young people, supplemented by the old guard. Others say it has
encouraged additional efforts to limit benefits to legal and undocumented
immigrants across the country.

"It's had a long-lasting effect, and it's not going to go away,"
said Bob Kiley, a consultant for Save Our State, which led the Proposition
187 effort. "It's going to be here through the 1996 election and will
be a topic of debate during the '96 election."

In California, immigrant advocates say they are seeing a backlash
from the measure.

"Even without it being implemented, it already is having damaging
effects not only for undocumented immigrants but also legal immigrants
and the Latino community in general," said Carlos Vaquerano, a native of
El Salvador who is community relations director at the Central American
Refugee Center in Los Angeles. [also known as CARECEN -- LW]

The proposition, overwhelmingly approved by voters in November,
prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving most public services and benefits, including public education and nonemergency health care. It also requires police, schools and hospitals to report suspected undocumented immigrants.

Mr. Kiley said that despite the legal challenges that have stalled
the law, "We've already won."

Immediately after the November election, public medical facilities
reported a drop in people seeking services, and some schools reported
drops in enrollment that many attribute to immigrant fears.

Accurately measuring the proposition's effect is difficult, said
Georges Vernez, director of the Center for Research on Immigration Policy at the Rand Corp., a nonprofit public policy research institute based in Santa Monica, Calif.

"(Proposition 187) certainly has helped bring out latent feelings many people have against immigration, but I wouldn't attribute all that to 187," he said. "The difficult economic situation in California probably has more to say about how people feel about immigration now, than 187 has had."

[over-emotional claims from former illegal alien]

Opponents of the proposition say that after the election, they were
flooded with reports of discrimination and harassment.

Bobbi Murray, spokeswoman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant
Rights of Los Angeles, said her organization received about 150 calls a day. [CHIRLA allegedly has collaborated with the Mexican government --LW]

...Proposition 187 proponents dismiss the reports of discrimination as
isolated and exaggerated.

"As far as we know, they didn't get a lot of calls, just a few silly
examples of people asking for green cards," said Ron Prince, an Orange
County businessman and chairman of Save Our State. "Discrimination was
never really the issue. It's just a diversion by opponents."

He and other supporters say anti-proposition forces are turning an
economic issue into a racial one.

[...another anecdote which latter evidence proved probably had nothing to do with 187...]

For some, Proposition 187 has served as a rallying point for efforts
to rejuvenate a Chicano movement in the Southwest.

This month, several hundred representatives of academic institutions, legal and grass-roots organizations, as well as student groups, gathered in Riverside to discuss how to respond to Proposition 187.

"This Proposition 187 is a declaration of war against the Chicano population of this country," said Armando Navarro, director of the Ernesto Galarza Public Policy and Humanities Institute at the University of California at Riverside. Dr. Navarro and others urged a coordinated effort to fight what they called anti-immigrant and anti-Latino measures across the country.

Among those attending the conference were Jose Angel Gutierrez, director of the Mexican American Studies Center at the University of Texas at Arlington, and a founder of La Raza Unida Party of the 1970s. Also present was Reies Lopez Tijerina, who in 1967 led a small band of fellow land grant advocates in an armed raid on the Tierra Amarilla County Courthouse in northern New Mexico.

Numerous speakers called the growing sentiment against undocumented
immigrants in the United States a reaction to the "browning of
America." There were calls for continued protests, marches, boycotts and legal fights.

...All this has the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a civil-rights organization made up of lawyers, preparing for a protracted fight.

"Thousands of health care workers and educators already have said
that if Prop 187 goes into effect, they will not enforce it," said James Lafferty, executive director.

Lawyers from the organization already are helping defend more than
50 students who were arrested or expelled from school for protesting
against Proposition 187.

This month, the guild conducted training for legal professionals wanting to defend protesters or file discrimination
lawsuits.

The national organization also will bring volunteer lawyers, law
students and legal workers to California this summer to deal with problems from Proposition 187.

The effort, Mr. Lafferty said, is similar to one conducted in 1964
when the group sent legal assistance to Mississippi to help civil rights workers.

But Mr. Lafferty acknowledged that there is a significant difference.

"There really was a lot of support around the country for what the
protesters were doing in the South," Mr. Lafferty said. "Today, I don't see that resource of basic decency vis-a-vis immigrants."