Pro-immigrant activists want to dispel what they call myths about immigrants, such as claims that newcomers drain public services. On the whole, they contend, illegal immigrants contribute more to the community than they take from it.

The advocates say scapegoating of immigrants has the effect of encouraging intolerance against anyone who looks or sounds foreign. "What bothers me is that when people say illegal, they only think Latin American people," said Ricardo Parada, a Salvadoran immigrant.

Some pro-immigrant groups threaten to lead campaigns to deny financial and political support to politicians sponsoring anti-immigrant measures. They are stepping up efforts to aid hundreds of thousands of former illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens after gaining amnesty under a 1986 federal law.

Stewart Kwoh, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, said that as more immigrants become citizens and "integrate into community activities . . . the less fear and ignorance there is."

The immigration debate has brought about an odd bedfellows coalition. Population growth control groups have joined the Federation for American Immigration Reform in advocating immigration cutbacks, and immigrant rights groups have received help from the National Organization for Women. NOW opposed a bill--ultimately signed into law by Wilson--that denies drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, contending that it would put many women in greater danger by taking them out of cars and putting them onto public transit.

In Sacramento, the defense of immigrants is being taken up by the New California Coalition, a broad-based group whose members include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Consumers Union.

The other side argues that illegal immigrants cannot be defended because they are lawbreakers by the very act of U.S. entry. The credo of the Orange County-based Coalition for Immigration Reform includes the statement: "Facts and figures repeatedly (prove) that illegal aliens, first committing a criminal act by violating our borders and then bringing their values and culture into our midst, are major contributors to our mounting financial burdens and moral and social degradation."

Advocates for illegal immigrants say they do not excuse illegal entry. The activists say they seek to ensure that illegal immigrants--once here--are treated humanely, said Claudia Martinez, Sacramento lobbyist for MALDEF. "If you talk about people breaking the law, let's talk about employers who exploit them (illegal immigrants)."