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In 1985, Harold Washington issued an executive order that relaxed federal immigration laws under then-President Ronald Reagan, whose administration “aggressively used [the] detention of Central Americans as a device to deter migration from that region, where violent civil wars had caused tens of thousands to flee,” according to University of California Davis law professor Kevin Davis. Since Aug. 31, 2022, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has bussed or flown to Chicago nearly 40,000 individuals seeking asylum in an effort to use the welcoming aspects of Washington’s executive order as a political cudgel. On April 14, Mayor Johnson called out the...

Cop Hits Little Girl With Motorcycle Then Shoots and Kills Angry Dad

July 19, 2010 A City Outsources Everything. Sky Doesn’t Fall. By DAVID STREITFELD MAYWOOD, Calif. — Not once, not twice, but three times in the last two weeks, Andrew Quezada says, he was stopped and questioned by the authorities here. Mr. Quezada, a high school student who does volunteer work for the city, pronounced himself delighted. “I’m walking along at night carrying an overstuffed bag,” he said, describing two of the incidents. “I look suspicious. This shows the sheriff’s department is doing its job.” Chalk up another Maywood resident who approves of this city’s unusual experience in municipal governing. City...

Since passage of the measure, salaries for council members — part-time employees — have jumped more than 50%, from $61,992 a year to at least $96,996. The Los Angeles County district attorney has opened an inquiry into whether the salaries are lawful. A state law enacted in 2005 limits the pay of council members in "general law" cities, a category that includes most cities in Southern California. That law was passed in reaction to the high salaries that leaders in South Gate had bestowed on themselves earlier in the decade. But the year that law passed, the Bell City Council...

A report by the LA Times sparked a protest at last night’s council meeting when it was learned that the Bell, California city manager makes nearly $800,000 dollars annually. That’s not all, the police chief of the 38,000 resident Town makes over $450,000 per year and each city council member rakes in $100,000 for their part time gig. Good work if you can get it. Bell is a mostly Hispanic town of just under 40,000 people about 10 miles southeast of Los Angeles. At the City Council meeting last night it was like the final scene of Frankenstein, pitchforks and...

From Bloomberg, link only: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-20/california-official-s-800-000-salary-in-city-of-38-000-triggers-protests.html

One of the poorest cities in Los Angeles County has come under public scrutiny for paying its top officials some of the highest salaries in the nation, including almost $800,000 annually for its city manager. The city of Bell pays Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo $787,637 annually, and also pays police Chief Randy Adams $457,000 a year, about 50 percent more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck or Sheriff Lee Baca make, the Los Angeles Times reported. Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia is paid $376,288 annually, which is more than most city managers are paid. Rizzo, who has run...

Municipal borrowers defaulted at three times the typical rate even as the pace fell from records the past two years when Jefferson County, Alabama, and Lehman Brothers Holding Inc.’s failure sustained historic levels. Thirty-five municipal bond issues totaling $1.5 billion defaulted in the first six months of 2010, the Miami Lakes, Florida-based Distressed Debt Securities Newsletter reported in its July edition. That annualized $3 billion pace is triple the rate of $1 billion or less a year going back to 1983, Richard Lehmann, publisher of the newsletter, said in a phone interview today. The rest of the story...

A California "sanctuary city" has fallen victim to illegal immigration – going bankrupt and firing all of its public employees, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports. The city of Maywood, Calif., hit the budget wall after it decided not only to be a sanctuary city, but to be a completely "safe haven" for illegal aliens seeking protection from deportation. "Predictably, mainstream media newspapers, including the Financial Times in London, chose to present Maywood as a victim to the recession, rather than to tell the whole story – that Maywood fell victim to illegal immigration," Corsi wrote. "Crushed by the recession and...

Maywood, a small working-class community south of downtown Los Angeles, plans to lay off all its employees, disband its Police Department and turn over its entire municipal operations to a neighbor — an action that appears to be without precedent among California cities. SNIP Maywood's $10.1-million general fund budget has a deficit of at least $450,000, officials said. Beyond that, the city has been unable to obtain insurance because of a history of lawsuits, many involving its Police Department, which also patrols Cudahy. Operating without insurance would make even routine government services highly risky. SNIP Last month, the California Joint...

The city of Maywood will lay off all city employees and begin contracting police services with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department effective July 1, officials said. In addition to contracting with the Sheriff's Department, the Maywood City Council voted unanimously Monday night to lay off an estimated 100 employees and contract with neighboring Bell, which will handle other city services such as finance, records management, parks and recreation, street maintenance and others. Maywood will be billed about $50,833 monthly, which officials said will save $164,375 annually. "We will become 100% a contracted city," said Angela Spaccia, Maywood's interim city...

(06-22) 21:13 PDT MAYWOOD, Calif. (AP) -- The small city of Maywood south of downtown Los Angeles plans to lay off almost all its employees, disband its police department and contract municipal operations to a neighboring city. Facing a budget deficit of at least $450,000 and unable to get insurance because of a history of lawsuits, many involving the police department, the Maywood City Council said Monday night it had no choice but to adopt the plan. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/06/22/national/a211348D19.DTL#ixzz0reHZfRzP

Two cities, two very different climates for illegal immigrants. In San Bernardino, what began as a one-man crusade has turned into a movement pushing for one of the strictest anti-illegal immigrant laws in the country. Sixty miles away, officials in the tiny, working-class community of Maywood have declared the city a "sanctuary" for undocumented residents. In the highly charged national debate over illegal immigration, both cities have made headlines -- and inspired other cities -- with their divergent stances. The common thread between them is a shared frustration with a lack of immigration reform at the federal level.

The owner of a tow truck company that landed a lucrative contract with the city of Maywood has spent thousands of dollars entertaining police and public officials, including paying for meals, tickets to sporting events and trips to Las Vegas, records and interviews show. Two members of the City Council have acknowledged failing to report the gifts as required by state law. Known in Maywood by the moniker "Bravo" or sometimes "Tony Bravo," the owner's real name is Tooradj Khosroabadi. Since 1998, he has made millions towing cars, largely through an aggressive campaign by the city to rid its streets...

THE Maywood Police Department — a 37-man force that patrols a gritty square-mile city south of downtown Los Angeles — has become a haven for misfit cops who have been pushed out of other law enforcement agencies for crimes or serious misconduct. Among those on the job: A former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy terminated for abusing jail inmates; a onetime Los Angeles Police Department officer fired for intimidating a witness; and an ex-Huntington Park officer charged with negligently shooting a handgun and driving drunk. Other officers were hired by Maywood after flunking out of training programs elsewhere, a Times...

The first sign of trouble for Cudahy City Council candidate Tony Mendoza was a pair of thong panties mailed to his wife, with a note telling her to watch her husband’s back. Then came the phone calls — and the death threats. A political novice in a tiny city of Mexican immigrants that hasn’t had an election since 1999, Mendoza had expected dirty tricks. But to his dismay, the caller, who spoke poor English and called every day for three days, said Mendoza would be killed if he did not leave Cudahy, a 1.2-square-mile city 10 miles southeast of downtown...

The city of Maywood - a 1.2-square-mile town with an official population of just over 28,000 about eight miles south of downtown Los Angeles - is a pocket for illegal immigrants, lauded by immigrant advocates and decried by detractors. In this 96 percent Hispanic town, signs advising pedestrians to use crosswalks are printed in Spanish and English, and many storefronts' signs are in Spanish as well. The last census says 55 percent of residents are foreign-born, and 92 percent speak a language other than English at home. Earlier this year, the Maywood City Council passed a resolution opposing the Sensenbrenner...

Police officers in Maywood, Calif., Saturday eventually came to the pole to remove the flag but had bottles and rocks thrown at them, a radio listener named Sandra reported to the Terry Anderson show, heard on KRLA in Los Angeles. A video can be viewed here, and photographs can be seen here on the website

Police are investigating whether Maywood's deputy city clerk sent hate mail and tried to have a councilman killed after the town embraced illegal immigrants earlier this year. Not long after the City Council approved a symbolic resolution opposing a proposed federal law to make local police enforce immigration law, Councilman Felipe Aguirre and Mayor Thomas Martin began receiving threats in the mail. Last week, Hector Duarte, 29, was arrested on suspicion of soliciting to commit murder, said Los Angeles County sheriff's spokeswoman Kerri Webb. The target was Aguirre, police said. Bail was initially set at $1 million, but Duarte was...

Deputy clerk has been linked to an alleged plot to kill a councilman in the 'sanctuary city' for illegal immigrants. After the city of Maywood made national headlines earlier this year for its embrace of illegal immigrants, Councilman Felipe Aguirre and Mayor Thomas Martin began receiving threats in the mail. Now, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and Maywood police are investigating whether the town's deputy city clerk not only sent some of the hate mail but also tried to have Aguirre killed. Hector Duarte, 29, was arrested last week by Maywood police officers on suspicion of soliciting to...