Proposed California initiative on immigration

A pro­posed Cali­for­nia bal­lot meas­ure that seeks to rep­lic­ate Ari­zona’s con­tro­ver­sial crack­down on il­leg­al im­mig­rants has some prom­in­ent Re­pub­lic­ans con­cerned it will fur­ther harm their party’s already fraught re­la­tion­ship with Lati­nos.

Al­though it re­mains un­clear if enough sig­na­tures can be gathered to put the “Sup­port Fed­er­al Im­mig­ra­tion Law Act” on the 2012 bal­lot, a num­ber of Re­pub­lic­an strategists and lead­ers said that even the ef­fort to do so has the po­ten­tial to in­crease the chasm between the party’s can­did­ates and the vot­ing bloc whose re­cord-break­ing turnout tilted races in Novem­ber. They equated it to 1994’s Pro­pos­i­tion 187, which would have stopped il­leg­al im­mig­rants from re­ceiv­ing any state ser­vices, had it not been largely voided by the courts.

The de­bate mir­rors one tak­ing place at the na­tion­al level. Sev­er­al prom­in­ent GOP can­did­ates who were suc­cess­ful in re­cent elec­tions have taken a hard line on im­mig­ra­tion. Party op­er­at­ives and lead­ers who have grown wor­ried about ali­en­at­ing Lati­nos this week an­nounced a ma­jor out­reach ef­fort, led by former Flor­ida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Read more: Cali­for­nia Re­pub­lic­ans are split on pos­sible anti-il­leg­al im­mig­ra­tion meas­ure

Dec. 6, 2010  By Seema Mehta
The Le­gis­lat­ive Ana­lyst’s Of­fice provides non­par­tis­an fisc­al and policy ad­vice to the Cali­for­nia Le­gis­lature. The of­fice provided this re­port on the pro­posed bal­lot ini­ti­at­ive to crack­down on il­leg­al im­mig­ra­tion to At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Jerry Brown on Nov. 5, 2010.
Dec. 6, 2010  By Seema Mehta
The new Cali­for­nia pro­pos­al, known as the Sup­port Fed­er­al Im­mig­ra­tion Law Act, is modeled on the Ari­zona’s sus­pen­ded law, SB 1070, law, but has tweaks that sup­port­ers be­lieve will al­low it to sur­vive leg­al chal­lenges. Back­ers need to col­lect 433,971 val­id sig­na­tures by April 21, 2011, to qual­i­fy the meas­ure for the bal­lot, which something they hope to do with a com­bin­a­tion of paid sig­na­ture-gather­ers and ‘tea party’ vo­lun­teers, said ...
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