In 1994, Barbara Coe from Orange County, California got her 15 minutes of national attention as the founder of California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR). She was a co writer and promoter of the now infamous California Prop.187. According to Coe, “We are suffering robbery, rape and murder of law-abiding citizens at the hands of illegal barbarians, who are cutting off heads and appendages of blind, white, disabled gringos.” Her activities earned Coe and the CCIR Hate Group status from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

 In 1994, California was in the throngs of a calamitous economic recession, conditions that make it ripe for hate mongers to ply their wares. Those same conditions are present in 2009. Now, 15 years later she is at it again, seeking a second round of national infamy.

 Under the guise of “stop illegal immigration” the Coes of the nation, attempt to create an environment of hatred towards a group of people that by and large cross the border in search of a better life for themselves and family. That it is wrong for them to do so without proper and official permission is a given and subject to US law enforcement.

But these desperate people, no different than the ancestors of most Americans who are today the beneficiaries of that sacrifice, who now seek refuge in the United States of America are not deserving of such spite, such hate. No one deserves that.

 What made Prop 187 so heinous was its attack on the children of immigrants under the guise of stopping illegal immigration. Prop 187 called for the expelling from school the children whose parents were in the country illegally. These kindergartens, first, second, third and grades through high school were to be questioned by school authorities including teachers as to the legal status of their parents. Using information obtained from them, would trigger their expulsion from school.

 Prop 187 also called for emergency medical care personnel to question any Latino as to their legal status in the country. If unable to prove citizenship or legal status they were to be denied attention. Latino US citizens would need to have their passport?

 Prop 187 passed not because of Coe, but because Governor Pete Wilson running for reelection took up the banner promoting the measure once his political advisors noted that people were blaming him for the state’s economic problems and he was more than 20 percentage points behind his opponent. His campaign had to find someone to blame and Prop 187 was just the right issue for that – blame illegal immigrants for all the state’s economic woes.

Wilson, Coe and the other promoters knew the measure would prove to be unconstitutional since the Supreme Court had ruled in 1982 that no child in the United States can be denied an education. And as far as emergency medical service was concerned, no person can be denied such treatment. It came to pass that Prop 187 died in the courts.

 To Barbara Coe it makes no difference whether Latinos are US citizens, to her they are all Mexicans. According to her, all Mexican-Americans are part of a grand Mexican government scheme to take back the “lost” territories to give back to Mexico. Mexican-Americans are to be deported, after all in the 1930’s during the Great Depression thousands of Latinos without concern to citizenship were uprooted and deported to Mexico.

 Coe is frozen in times past not accepting that we’ve come a long way since those days when it was also common practice to segregate schools, deny education based on race or ethnicity, and denial of civil and constitutional rights for non-white people be they Latino or Black or Asians. In short, be lily white or out you go.

 Now Coe has a new deal trying to sell to a frighten citizenry due to the present economic hard times. She wants Californian’s to vote to deny citizenship to children born in the United States whose parents are here illegally. She’s after the children again.

 The today pretense is that they cost us a lot of money. As citizens they are eligible to receive “dependent” benefits. If the mother is here illegally, she cannot obtain benefits, so the payments are made to her citizen child. That angers people who see this as an unfair assault on taxpayers. But instead of addressing the issue – Coe goes after the children.

 Of course, she won’t say that in 1996 the Welfare Reform Act deprived undocumented immigrants any welfare benefits other than emergency medical treatment. And, an important clause, when applying for “dependent” benefits parents must provide their legal status when applying. If not in the US legally, the welfare office is obligated to contact immigration authorities and provide them with a copy of the application. In this manner the proper authorities will investigate and enforce the law.

As for Coe’s new scheme, it’s unconstitutional as the 14th Amendment clearly indicates that a child born in the United States is a citizen. But she knows this, so she gets to vent out her hatred, and collect several hundred thousand dollars in donations to “help the cause” – it’s a good racket for her – temporary fame, insane rhetoric and make money. For a racist it doesn’t get much better than that.

www.hispanicvista.com), and co-founder of TransBorder Communications, dedicated to binational economic development.  Contact at mailto:Posio@aol.com