About Proposition 187

Proposition 187, the California ballot initiative that deprives illegal immigrants of state services, has quickly been revealed as the inhumane headache its opponents promised it would be.

Already a host of examples of the new measure's inevitable consequences have shown how unlikely it is that its supporters really thought much before casting their votes.

Did Californians, when they voted to deny illegal immigrants non-emergency medical care, think about the consequences of having people go untreated for communicable diseases, thereby putting whole communities at risk? And did Californians really want the people who run child welfare agencies to abandon children already abandoned by their parents, or to evict abused children now in foster care?

Health-care workers, educators and other public servants are having to think about such issues now. That is one reason why the Los Angeles City Council and school district have vowed not to comply with 187; it is one reason why school principals around the state have rushed to reassure their pupils that they have no intention of playing enforcer for the Immigration and Naturalization Service; it is one reason why staffs at health clinics have vowed to give up state funding rather than turn away people in need.

-- The New York Times