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Proposition 187 was a ballot initiative that set out to make California inhospitable to illegal immigrants in 1994. The measure barred illegal immigrants and their children from public schools, social services and non-emergency health care. While it sailed through with the support of nearly 60 percent of voters, the initiative was never implemented. Most of it was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge. Then there were the political costs for the GOP. Enraged by demonstrably anti-Latino television commercials, 78 percent of Latinos voted against the initiative. Latinos flocked to the Democratic Party, where they helped deliver a string of elections and wound up in positions of power and influence. Before 1996, there had never been a Latino speaker of the California Assembly. In the eight years since, there have been three. And now a similar drama is being played out. This time the spark is, of all things, the movement in the Legislature to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. [more]