However, all is not lost, since a campaign is gearing up to launch an initiative so voters can choose an Arizona-style immigration law. Remember that Californians passed Prop 187 in 1994 that prevented illegals from getting state services and the anti-affirmative action Proposition 209 in 1996. California was once the state that led on immigration restriction. In 1990 for example, San Diegans organized the Light-Up-the-Border demonstrations to show the growing illegal alien crisis in the area.
We just have to hope that there are enough friends of US sovereignty remaining after so many millions have left California for places still recognizable as America. Even so, Erickson says that polling shows the measure would pass, even in today's PC Mexifornia.
Plus having the proposition on the 2012 ballot would make the immigration issue unavoidable in the Presidential election.
California group pushes initiative modeled on Arizona's immigration-status law, Los Angeles Times, November 24, 2010For more info, see SupportImmigration.org.Proponents of a California initiative modeled after Arizona's controversial immigration law may begin gathering signatures to place the measure on the ballot in 2012, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Tuesday.
The measure would require state and local law enforcement officers to investigate the immigration status of anyone they lawfully stop and ”reasonably” suspect may be in the country illegally. It would also make it a crime for illegal immigrants to seek work while concealing their legal status and for employers to ”intentionally or negligently” hire them.
Initiative proponent Michael Erickson would need to collect signatures from 433,971 registered voters by April 21, 2011, to qualify it for the ballot. If it is validated, the measure could be placed before voters in February or June of 2012.
The Obama administration challenged Arizona's law in court, arguing that SB 1070 usurped the federal government's sole authority to regulate immigration. A federal judge blocked key portions of the law in July just before it was slated to take effect.
Both sides are awaiting a decision from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the lower court's ruling.
Erickson, chairman of the Belmont-based Support Federal Immigration Law Committee, said he had studied the federal judge's decision when crafting his initiative and is confident that it would pass any legal challenges.
Unlike the Arizona law, the California proposal specifies that law enforcement officers must verify immigration status "in a timely manner at the scene of the stop or detainment" and may only do so through information provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal agencies.
Erickson said the proponents decided to introduce an initiative in California before the Arizona legal battle had run its course in part because they were concerned about the spillover effects of the Arizona law.
"Our concern is with the possibility, if not probability, of an increase in not only illegal immigration in California but with a drug infestation, in part because Arizona is cracking down in their state," he said.
Michael Erickson spoke at the September GroupaPalooza event put on by Bay Area Patriots in Marin County:
As I wrote recently, in 
