http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... california

May 23, 2005 latimes.com
George Skelton:

A State Border Patrol Wouldn't Be Out of Bounds

A legislator wants California to create its own border police force to keep out illegal immigrants. Two things are intriguing about that.

First, it's one of those paradoxes of politics that this significant expansion of state government is being advocated by a conservative Republican. Such ideologues, after all, usually push to pare back the bureaucracy.

Second, given the federal government's dereliction of duty along the U.S.-Mexican border, this seems to be the only sensible alternative for Californians frustrated with rampant illegal immigration. And many are.

"It's the first question that comes up," says the legislator, Assemblyman Ray Haynes of Murrieta, referring to citizen meetings he holds in his district that covers western Riverside and northern San Diego counties. "Folks literally have illegals running through their backyards." (He's talking big backyards, as in ranches.)

"About two years ago, things started heating up. It's now the hottest issue. The [state] budget, people can't understand. They understand illegal immigration. They see it."

Mark Baldassare, pollster for the Public Policy Institute of California, agrees that Republican voters â€â€