The Judicial Death of Proposition 187

Abstract

Proposition 187’s victory made headlines across the United States.¹ Many stories focused on the initiative’s impressive margin of victory, on how it would change immigration policy in California and possibly the wider United States, and on how it had helped propel Governor Wilson to an unexpected second term. Other reports, meanwhile, concentrated on the deleterious consequences of the radical initiative. They examined the angry reaction of Latinos, the street protests, the student boycott of schools and their participation in demonstrations and civic unrest.² They reported the anecdotal evidence that pointed to an increase in racial abuse of Latinos—whether American citizens, legal residents, or undocumented—by (white) Californians who interpreted the initiative’s success as a liberation from social mores regarding public expressions of racism.³ Still other reports suggested that attendance decreased at medical centers as undocumented persons missed appointments because of fears about deportation.⁴ Health officials worried that if undocumented persons did not seek early treatment for communicable diseases such as TB and measles, a health crisis could develop as the diseases spread quickly to the wider California population.⁵ One of the most shocking reports told of the death of an undocumented twelve-year-old boy, Julio Cano, on November 19. Julio had fallen ill with chest and bowel pains on November 16, one week after Prop. 187’s electoral victory. Julio’s father, also an undocumented resident, told reporters how he had been afraid to take his son to the community clinic or hospital because he thought staff there would inform the immigration authorities about his illegal status.