Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 4, 1994                   TAG: 9411040095
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-16   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IMMIGRATION

As with many other grievances, voters have good cause to be angry. Illegal immigration is no longer a victimless crime in California, where an estimated million and a half illegal immigrants have settled. And the federal government has refused either to get tough on those who violate the immigration laws or to help California and other burdened states defray some of the costs.

As with many other grievances, too, the proposed solution is too blunt an instrument. California's ballot initiative would try to drive away illegal immigrants by denying them, and their children, education and social services. It's a good expression of voter resentment but an ill-considered response to the problem. It would, for example, require a repulsive surveillance system in schools and hospitals to sort out and kick out the ineligible, even children.

The sad part is that the federal government has helped bring upon California and the country this ugly reaction by neglecting the need to get serious about immigration reform.

To be sure, the Clinton administration has improved the situation by restoring a democratically elected president in Haiti, and by promoting economic development in Mexico with the North American Free Trade Agreement. Border management is being toughened as well.

But Barbara Jordan, the respected former congresswoman from Texas, a month ago presented to the White House a credible plan by the U.S. Immigration Commission she chairs. And the White House dropped it as fast as it could.

The commission's plan would require no national ID card or special questioning of people suspected of being illegal immigrants (not likely to include blond-haired, blue-eyed people). It recommended simply that job applicants be asked the question: "What is your Social Security number?" A computer registry would allow employers to determine if prospective employees were authorized to work in the United States.

Californians would do well to defeat the mean-spirited Proposition 187. Too many citizens of this nation of immigrants fail to recognize the tremendous benefits that immigrants bring with them. Most of them come to work, not to get free services. Even so, Washington for its part would do well to respond to the wake up call from the other side of the country, and begin fashioning a comprehensive and fairer immigration policy.