In 1994, Californians voted overwhelmingly to approve a ballot measure, called Proposition 187, that barred undocumented immigrants from using public health care or education services. A federal court eventually struck down the measure as unconstitutional, but Washington took note. For much of the 1994 campaign, the state’s incumbent governor, a Republican named Pete Wilson, was trailing his Democratic opponent by a wide margin. Seeing the passion generated by Proposition 187, he claimed the cause as his own. He aired a video of men darting past cars while sneaking across the border onto
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