1994

1994 saw the passage of California Proposition 187, a ballot measure designed to save taxpayer dollars

by denying public benefits to undocumented immigrants.

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That same year a federal district court issued a temporary injunction forbidding the enforcement of Proposition 187. A permanent injunction was later issued. The state of California did not appeal the injunction, leaving it standing.

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The number of Latinxs voting in California elections rapidly increased followed the passage of Proposition 187. Some analysts cite the Republican Party's embrace of Proposition 187 as a cause of the subsequent failure of the party to win statewide elections. A 2006 study found that Republican support of Proposition 187 and two later ballot initiatives shifted both white and Latino voters in California away from the Republican Party. The authors of the study said that the "results raise serious questions about the long-term efficacy of racially divisive strategies for electoral gain."

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Thirty years later, the authors of the study might want to reconsider those "serious questions."