The worst part of Prop 187 is not its denial of public services or health care. Few latinos avail themselves of these services anyway. The worst component of Proposition 187 is that it will deny all public education to the children of undocumented immigrants. American, it is short-sighted and unconstitutional. Education is the foundation of civilization.
Education promotes the nation's progress and binds our social fabric.
Justice Lewis Powell voiced that warning in the 1982 Plyler v. Doe case. The provisions of Prop 187 that exclude the children of undocumented immigrants from public education are unquestionably unconstitutional under Plyler v. Doe. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Texas law similar to Prop 187 violated the equal protection clause of the constitution. Of course, the proponents of Prop 187 expect that Plyler will be reversed by the present, more conservative Supreme Court. Whether the Supreme Court rules Proposition 187 illegal, we should expect that other states and the current U.S. Congress will continue to promote laws that pander to the nation's widespread need to find scapegoats to blame for all our perceived problems.