Wilson Assailed Over Immigration Funds : Politics: Governor goes to Washington to lobby for release of federal aid. Boxer, Feinstein say he failed as a GOP senator to deliver the money to state.

WASHINGTON —  California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are criticizing Gov. Pete Wilson for playing cynical politics and looking for scapegoats as he launches a four-day lobbying blitz here today to solicit $1.4 billion in federal immigration funds.

In separate interviews, Democrats Boxer and Feinstein said that Wilson failed as a Republican senator working with a GOP Administration to deliver on federal promises to pay states for the steep cost of providing services for immigrants.

Now Wilson, who has blamed costs associated with immigrants for part of California’s financial crisis, is demanding that the Democrat-controlled Congress and President Clinton deliver funds that are past due.

“It’s a little ironic that where he failed he is sort of tossing this very difficult problem at the Democratic Congress,” Boxer said. “All of us in politics understand what the governor is trying to do. It is the blame game thing.”

Feinstein said playing politics “isn’t going to work because everybody is smart enough to know this was a situation that had a remedy and the Republicans did away with the remedy. And now the problem has gotten so bad that the Republicans are saying we want the remedy back.”

Wilson flew to Washington on Saturday and was unavailable for comment. A spokesman for the governor said the senators are missing the issue by raising the specter of politics and Wilson’s record in the Senate. Wilson served in the Senate from 1983 until 1990, when he was elected governor.

“The bottom line is California is owed the money,” said the spokesman, Kevin Eckery. “It has nothing to do with the blame game.”

California is home to more than half the nation’s legal and illegal immigrants. Congress and the Bush Administration failed to provide the state nearly $500 million in funds for immigrant services that were authorized when Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

Both senators emphasized that they are making every effort to wrench as much money from the U.S. Treasury as possible for California.

Feinstein said she has formed a bipartisan “immigration working group” composed of senators from six other large states to fight for the funds. In addition, Boxer and Feinstein are joining the entire California House delegation to press for the money owed to provide federally mandated immigrant and refugee settlement services.

They recently sent a letter urging Leon E. Panetta, director of the Office of Management and Budget and a former congressman from Monterey, to restore the full $1.4 billion included in George Bush’s budget for immigrant programs in California.

“All of these things have to be fought for in the context of a humongous deficit,” Boxer said. “I hope Dianne and I can be successful where (Wilson) wasn’t.”

Wilson, in his $51.2-billion state budget proposal released this month, included $1.45 billion in federal funds to cover the cost of health, welfare, education and prison programs for immigrants, refugees and their children.

Wilson has said he will have to abandon his spending plan and start over if Congress and Clinton do not forward the money by May 15.

Such a deadline is “unrealistic,” Feinstein said, adding that Wilson knows from his days as a senator that the two congressional appropriations committees do not approve spending bills until late summer at the earliest.

During his visit to Washington this week, Wilson plans to make his case at every opportunity. This includes scheduled appearances at the National Governors Assn. conference, a three-hour White House meeting with President Clinton and other governors, and a breakfast with the California congressional delegation. Wilson also will meet privately with Feinstein and Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), an influential member of the House Appropriations Committee.