Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
Closing California
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
I'm an American Worker and I'm Tired of Getting Screwed
Rick Kepler
Democracy and Elections:
Consensus Builds for Universal Voter Registration
Project Vote
DrugReporter:
Beaten, Tortured and Sentenced 25-to-Life for Minor Drug Offense
Randy Credico
Election 2008:
Obama's Latino Mandate
Steve Cobble, Joe Velasquez
Environment:
How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth
Herve Kempf
ForeignPolicy:
Arab Americans Should Be Worried About Rahm Emanuel
Remi Kanazi
Health and Wellness:
Meditation May Protect Your Brain
Michael Haederle
Hurricane Katrina:
From the Bayou to Baghdad: Mission Not Accomplished
Amy Goodman
Immigration:
Border Fence to Carve up Nature Reserve
Enrique Gili
Media and Technology:
Glenn Beck Wonders Why He's Resented as a Bigot
Steve Rendall
Movie Mix:
Honeytrap Lies and Women Spies
Rosie White
Reproductive Justice and Gender:
The Push to Appoint Women to Obama's Cabinet Is Threatened
Allison Stevens
Rights and Liberties:
In Stunning Ruling, D.C. Judge Orders Release of Five Gitmo Prisoners
Sex and Relationships:
Is It Wrong to Talk About Michelle Obama's Body?
Tamura Lomax
War on Iraq:
Theater of War: Portrait of a Homeland Security State [Photo Slideshow Included]
Lindsay Beyerstein
Water:
The Tide Is Changing on Bottled Water
Wendy Williams
If the Republican Partys pre-convention decision to keep immigration issues and developments in Utah and Colorado – where a xenophobic candidate was defeated and an anti-immigration initiative failed to qualify for the ballot, respectively – out of the spotlight are indicative of a sea-change in the nations immigration wars, the conservative California Republican Assembly, and Dr. Franklin L. Banker, a Carmichael, California, oncologist, apparently havent gotten the news.
The California Republican Assembly, a Monrovia-based, ultra right-wing grassroots GOP group headed by Mike Spence, is aiming to gather enough signatures to qualify another anti-immigrant initiative for the March 2006 state ballot. According to Copley News Service, the Save Our License initiative "is a narrowed version of the polarizing Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot measure that was handily approved by voters by a 59 percent to 41 percent margin.
Proposition 187 was later invalidated by the states courts, which decided to allow children of illegal immigrants to attend school and receive medical care.
The new initiative would not ban services the courts have already exempted.
"I'm trying to protect the Constitution, trying to protect the great United States of America," Spence told the Pasadena Star-News. "Wave upon wave of immigration throughout history has had a way of integrating itself into American society. Now, we have created a process where that isn't happening. We're not having assimilation, they're not embracing American values."
Spence, who has been in the forefront of efforts to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, told the newspaper that "the will of the voters was betrayed in the deal that ended Proposition 187."
According to the CRA web site, the Save Our License Initiative consists of three main provisions: "First, the government will not provide any benefits not mandated by federal law. Second, the government will defend this law against any and all legal challenges. Third, individual citizens will be granted the power to sue to compel compliance with the law.
Banker's Brief
Dr. Franklin L. Banker is taking a different approach to the question of immigration. He is cleverly couching his proposal as a pro-environment, anti-population growth and pro-sexuality education measure – with a number of anti-immigrant sections tucked into it. Dr. Bankers magic number is 373,816 – the number of qualified signatures he needs to collect by October 15, 2004 in order to qualify for the California ballot.
Dr. Bankers initiative comes on the heels of the Save Our State initiative – Proposition 187 redux – introduced in California by Paul Nachman, a leader of SUSPS, Devin Burghart, the director of the Building Democracy Initiative of the Chicago-based Center for New Community and a veteran anti-immigration watcher, told me in a recent e-mail interview. That initiative went nowhere; it wasnt even able to garner enough support to get on the ballot. Now, it appears that theyre looking for new ways to package anti-immigrant legislation and make it more appealing to environmentalists as a constituency.
The good doctors effort also appears to be stamped from the same mold as the recent failed hostile takeover of the Sierra Club by SUSPS activists and other anti-immigration organizations. The proposed ballot language is remarkably similar to the way in which anti-immigrant activists pitched their candidates to Sierra Club voters, said Burghart.
Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering right-wing groups and movements.
Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »
| More News and Analysis: | ||
|
The Push to Appoint Women to Obama's Cabinet Is Threatened Reproductive Justice and Gender: Women's rights advocates are scrambling to make up for an unexpected shortage of cash to fund a push for female appointees to Obama's Cabinet. By Allison Stevens, Women's eNews. November 23, 2008. |
Meditation May Protect Your Brain Health and Wellness: Research is confirming the medicinal effects that advocates have long claimed for meditation. By Michael Haederle, Miller-McCune.com. November 22, 2008. |
The Dirty Secret of the Financial Crisis: Our Banking System's Broken Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: No more free money from Washington. No more masters of the universe. No more business as usual. Time for a banking holiday. By William Greider, The Nation. November 22, 2008. |