A Blast from the Past: Enforcing Proposition 187 and Reporting “Apparent Illegal Immigration Status”

California is a self-declared sanctuary state.  However, it has not always been a shining light on immigration law and policy.  In 1994, California voters passed Proposition 187, an anti-immigrant initiative that would have required school officials and law enforcement agencies to report allegedly undocumented immigrants. Reinvigorating a flagging campaign, Republican California Governor Pete Wilson ran a now famous television ad supporting the initiative.

As part of the enforcement of Proposition 187, the California Department of Justice prepared a “Notice to the California Attorney General of Apparent Illegal Immigration Status.” As far as I know, the form was never used because a federal court enjoined Proposition 187 from going into effect because it intruded on the authority of the federal government to regulate  immigration.  Calif0rnia Agricultural Labor Board member Ralph Lightstone came across the long-forgotten form from a different time in California history.  We wondered how one might determine “Apparent Illegal Immigration Status”?  By physical appearance, Spanish surname, or what?  There is no sure way to determine one’s immigration status by their appearance.  It would seem that requirements of reporting possible undocumented immigrants would open the door to racial, class, and other impermissible profiling.  

As President Trump’s mass deportation campaign unfolds, some U.S. citizens have been mistakenly caught in the dragnet.  Some people have been wrongfully deported.  Many Californians today see Proposition 187 as a dark time in the Golden State’s history.  How long will it be before we see the Trump years in the same light?

KJ