The battle over Proposition 187 shifted quickly from the ballot box to courtrooms, to government chambers and the streets Wednesday as Californians, in a resounding Election Day mandate, ushered in a new era of stern restrictions against illegal immigrants.
Acting immediately to implement the measure for which he so vigorously campaigned, newly reelected Gov. Pete Wilson issued a toughly worded executive order directing health care providers to discontinue prenatal services and new admissions to nursing homes for illegal immigrants.
"The people of California have passed Proposition 187, now we must enforce it," said Wilson at a morning press conference at a Los Angeles hotel.
But critics of the controversial initiative had other plans, filing at least eight lawsuits in state and federal courts throughout California.
By midafternoon, a San Francisco Superior Court judge, acting on a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Los Angeles and San Francisco Unified School districts and the California School Boards Assn., temporarily barred enforcement of the proposition's requirement that illegal immigrants be excluded from California public schools.
In a separate action, the judge extended the order to public colleges and universities.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a federal district judge presiding over a legal challenge brought by civil rights groups ordered that he be notified of any "substantive" enforcement of the initiative prior to a court hearing he scheduled for next Wednesday. But spokesmen for Wilson and Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren said they would proceed in implementing the non-education portions of the initiative because the judge did not directly order them to halt such actions.
Among the rapid-fire developments Wednesday following the measure's overwhelming passage by a 59%-41% margin:
* The Los Angeles City Council voted 10-3 to direct city employees not to enforce any provisions of the measure, except its crackdown on the sale and possession of fake identity documents, until legal challenges have been completed. The council also voted to pursue legal action to overturn the initiative, which bans illegal immigrants from government-funded non-emergency services and requires local officials to report those suspected of being illegal immigrants to state and federal authorities.
