Proposition lacks answer

Proposition 187, on the ballot this fall, will effecti vely eliminate all state benefits and entitlements available to illegal aliens in California. It is believed that this measure will make California a less attractive option for illegal immigrants.

To this end, the proposition would require "notification by and between such (local, state and federal) agencies to prevent illegal aliens in the United States from receiving benefits of public services."

Because it is essentially a Republican proposition, 187 would also create new felony offenses, mostly involving the sale or use of fake identification documents.

Under 187, school systems would be compelled to verify the legal residence of all new students. Illegal immigrants will no longer be allowed to attend public school i n California. This appears to be the sole facet of Proposition 187 illegal immigrants might actually benefit.

The proposition doesn't allocate any money to stem the tide of illegal immigrants at the border, so it won't actually keep anyone out of the country. It will simply provide "illegals" with extra hardships.

Somehow I don't think it will be enough. People, especially desperate people, are amazingly resilient. I suspect that the law makers in Sacramento may underestimate the t oughness and determination of those they would so like to dispel from our fair state's golden countryside and noble thoroughfares. That those law makers are even in a position to try to keep other people out of California is a testament to the tough ness other people have shown in getting here.

Reading the histories of my family's westward migration from Pennsylvania isÉsobering. There aren't a lot of laughs between Pittsburgh and California. There are a lot of dead children and not a little bloodshed. One family history reads like this: "Father, Thomas White. Mother, Pricillia Bovee. Children, Thomas, deceased, aged 3. Martha, deceased, aged 2. Charles, deceased, aged 11. William, deceased, aged 7..."

Life on the plains w as tough.

My family's history isn't unique. Those who endured the westward migration did so because, in spite of its perils and discomforts, it was the best opportunity life in the Americas would ever offer them.

The same can be said fo r those who journey nightly to the United States from points south of the border. The border crossing, while shorter than the route the pioneers traveled, is no less arduous and perilous.

First, they must make it past extortionists in the guis e of Mexican Immigration officials. Because they often carry all that they own with them, they are easy targets for corrupt Mexican cops (federal and local) who wish to squeeze just one last drop of morida from the so- called pollos (chickens, in the form of food, as in "to be consumed") before they cross into the United States where, it is said, such abuses of power are unknown.

Once they have made it past the thieving immigration officials and the brutal police, immigrants must run a gan tlet of rattle snakes, rabid dogs, rapists, robbers, murdering bandit gangs, smugglers, United States Immigration and Naturalization helicopters, four-wheel drives and foot patrols, screaming freeways, roadway check points, the California Highway Patr ol and rock- throwing rednecks at the border before they can even think about how to cope with what they will find in America, namely predatory land lords, low-wage jobs, street gangs to recruit their children, random violence, prejudice, mean cops, and the various and sundry hassles associated with being in a country illegally.

For some reason they keep coming, and I doubt that Pete Wilson's paltry, petulant, election year proposition will do much to stop them.