ABSTRACT

No other state in the country gave a bigger boost to the cause of immigration restriction in the 1990s than California. In 2001, Texas seemed like an emerging model of an inclusive approach to immigrants, especially in the aftermath of California's punitive Proposition 187. In September 2015, California Republicans gathered in Anaheim for their party's fall convention. The assembled delegates considered a number of proposals to amend the state party platform, including an “anti-Proposition 187 plank,” proposed by Fresno delegate Marcelino Valdez. California's immigrant communities are densely concentrated in its largest urban centers, with the heaviest concentrations in the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas. Between 1990 and 2017 the share of naturalized citizens among California's foreign-born population increased steadily. Democrats regained control of both legislative chambers in Sacramento that year; Gray Davis's gubernatorial victory in 1998 re-established unified Democratic control of state government.