"The Waterloo of the Far-Right in California"

"Lawsuits kept it from ever being fully implemented, and a federal judge finally ruled it unconstitutional in 1999. It energized a Latino electorate–yes, John Boehner, there are plenty of legal Latino immigrant and Latinos born here–that came out in larger and larger numbers in subsequent elections, overwhelmingly voting Democrat and leading to de facto one-party rule California for the past decade. (The election of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2002 was an anomaly that American can blame on all my cousins who loved him in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.)
"The proposition also galvanized a generation of Latino politicians with long memories, who have effectively created a sanctuary state in California in subsequent years–offering driver's licenses to folks without papers, providing in-state tuition for undocumented college students, officially telling la migra to butt out of state affairs–as penance for the sins of their predecessors. It's these same legislators who crafted the bill that finally, fully repealed Prop 187, portions of which were still officially on the books up despite being unenforceable."


Gustavo Arellano in The Guardian observes the legacy of Proposition 187.