Newporter heads up task force

Stymied by a Democratic majority in Sacramento, state Republican lawmakers, including Newport Beach Assemblyman Chuck DeVore in a leadership role, are taking their immigration reform ideas straight to the people.

As federal legislators wrap up a series of nationwide hearings on illegal immigration this week, state Republican officials announced their own task force that will hear from the public and write legislation to address the issue in California.

DeVore will co-chair the task force, and Costa Mesa Assemblyman Van Tran said Wednesday he wants to participate.

The hearings are certain to draw out the disgruntled, but how productive they’ll be is still unclear.

DeVore ticked off a list of issues the task force may study: “We’re going to look at the illegal immigration impact on our prison system, on our education system, to what degree the state ought to look at border control, areas where we can cooperate and enhance the federal mission, the effect of illegal immigration on crime in our communities and, lastly, the specific cost to the state in social programs.”

The group will likely include 10 GOP assembly members who will take public testimony at hearings around the state over the next few months. Task-force members will use what they learn from the hearings to craft specific bills that address California’s illegal immigration problems, DeVore said.

“The practical impact is to generate legislative ideas that we can carry forward next year,” he said.

One possible bill would build a U.S.-operated prison in Mexico where illegal immigrants could serve their sentences for crimes committed here, DeVore said. He also said the legislature could tell state law enforcement agencies such as the highway patrol to cooperate with federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws.

But, he added, “you know as well as I do that would have a difficult time up here [in Sacramento].”

The task force may face opposition not only from Democratic legislators, but from Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“The governor has been very clear in all of his public comments that illegal immigration is a federal issue,” Schwarzenegger Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Lockhart said.

She would not comment on possible bill proposals, but she said the governor is willing to work with the legislature.

Even with Schwarzenegger’s support, Republican lawmakers are still the minority in the capital. And without specific bills on the table, state immigration hearings could largely serve to let people vent their anger, UC Irvine political scientist Louis DeSipio said.

The U.S. House hearings haven’t encouraged representatives to compromise, he said.

“My suspicion is that the strategy at the state level is slightly longer-term, and that’s to see if there’s a foundation for some sort of new ballot initiative that could be proposed … as a way of shaping the Republican party primary debate in 2008,” DeSipio said.

DeVore said showing Democrats how strongly voters feel may tip the scales enough to get GOP immigration bills passed.

“Sometimes there is an idea that the public is so much behind that the majority will look at it and say, ‘You know, we’re better off not fighting this,’” he said.

Specific hearing dates and locations have not been announced.