Should Maywood CA secede? Should they change their name to "Aztlan City"?

Maywood is a small (1.14 square miles), densely packed (28,000 residents), and almost exclusively Hispanic city southeast of Los Angeles. In fact, it's 96.3% Hispanic, with just 739 whites and only 43 blacks.

Now:

City Council in this predominantly Hispanic Los Angeles suburb has passed a resolution prohibiting local police from taking on immigration enforcement duties.

Maywood's resolution, passed unanimously 5-0 late Tuesday, also promised to reject any future federal law mandating cooperation between police and immigration officials in the city of 45,000 residents [according to Maywood's website, the 2000 Census says 28,000 -- LW].

"We want to make clear that our police department will not become immigration agents," said mayor Thomas Martin. "We also want to send a message to places like Costa Mesa that police should be focused on gangs and drugs, and not overextending their resources..."

It doesn't take much effort to see that there might be other reasons for this beyond an attempt to conserve resources. For instance, proudly featured at their site is the release from February 14, 2005 indicating their full support for Gil Cedillo's attempt to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens (PDF file). It includes

SB 60 was re-introduced by Senator Cedillo to provide hard working and law abiding immigrant drivers across the state with access to a California Driver's License. Currently, immigrant drivers are not allowed the opportunity to obtain a valid California Driver's License.

Obviously, that's misleading. Those affected by this would be illegal aliens, not "immigrants". And, those who enter or stay illegally and no doubt work illegally and use illegal documents are not "law abiding". The claim in the second sentence is completely false: legal immigrants can get driver's licenses.

Until such time as Maywood announces they're seceding, they are a part of the United States. If they don't act like it, perhaps it's time for the state or the federal government to step in and take action. It's not like something similar hasn't happened before, and only back in 2003 and involving the nearby South Gate. See "South Gate: Mexico Comes to California" or State controller to audit South Gate after corruption scandal.

On a side note, see if you notice anything strange about their history page. Just as a guess, did they type that in out of an old book?

And, would any "liberals" out there care to speculate exactly how a city so close to South Los Angeles could have so few African-Americans? While there might be other reasons, I know what I suspect.

Los_Angeles · Thu, 01/26/2006 - 05:25 · · Importance: 1