As South Gate resident Julia Barraza said, “It’s like I never left Mexico.”
One reason is Albert Robles. A former aide to a Mexican-American state legislator, Robles moved to South Gate when the demographics turned to his favor and was elected to the city council in 1992. At that time the job was part-time, and council members were paid $600 a month. A few years later, while still serving as a councilman, he was elected to the local water board at a compensation of $23,000 a year. In 1997, he won the race for city treasurer and began collecting an annual salary of $69,000. Meanwhile, Robles had seen to it that his friends and business associates were awarded city contracts worth millions. What Robles was getting out of these deals is anybody’s guess, but his political opponents were not faring nearly as well. City councilman Henry Gonzalez was shot in the head but survived the wound. Another political rival had his car firebombed. The crimes remain unsolved.
This "culture of corruption" is what Phyllis Schlafly was warning about in the last paragraph of her most recent column. The Mexican political culture is one of corruption and vilence. That is one major reason why Mexico is such a rotten country even though they have lots of oil revenue. This is what we will be getting more of in Los Angeles. It will be interesting to see how Villaraigosa operates. Of course, the LA Times will try to cover anything up.
This is a truly powerful story that should be immediately made into a motion picture.
What McCain and his co-conspirators in the Senate are really doing is granting amnesty to themselves. People can debate all day about the definition of amnesty as it applies to illegal aliens, but there is no doubt that Senators have written legislation to grant themselves amnesty.
They swore to uphold our laws and constitution. Yet, they have done nothing to stop illegals from coming in, they have done nothing to enforce the laws on the books-- they have abdicated all responsibility when it comes to doing their sworn duty. And that goes for our current and former Presidents.
Amnesty has been granted....to our elected leaders under the current legislation proposed by the Senate.
I say hold everyone accountable-- especially those who swore under oath they would uphold our laws.
