Is Huntington Park the New City of Bell?

Huntington Park, California, is a city just south of downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the infamously corrupt cities of Vernon and Bell.

Recently the Huntington Park Mayor Karina Macias and three members of its city council Graciela Ortiz, Jhonny Pineda, and Marilyn Sanabria, appointed two illegal aliens (Julian Zatarain, and Francisco Medina) to the Parks and Recreation and Health and Education city commission seats.

I joined with other activists from We the People Rising to go to the Huntington Park City Council meeting to confront those responsible for showing preferences to immigration law breakers and placing them ahead of citizens.

There are many reasons that one might oppose what the Huntington Park City Council had done, and while at the meeting many of our members and local residents made stupendous arguments.

What I wasn’t prepared for was when some of the local residents started to bring up detailed evidence and accusations of public corruption, nepotism, pay to play, voter fraud, and racketeering, by Mayor Karina Macias and three of the members of the City Council.

We came there to oppose the appointments of illegal immigrants to city commission seats, but left with knowledge of the entrenched and virtually unchecked corruption that we are told runs this city.

To understand Huntington Park, one needs to understand that an estimated 40 to 50 percent of Huntington Park’s residents are illegal aliens.

At first glance I would have said that Huntington Park is a city in Los Angeles County that Americans had left behind, but I found out, that is not entirely true. Among its ranks were a group of a dozen or so dedicated residents that were there opposing the appointment of illegal aliens and fighting the corruption that they see. These residents are Hispanic Americans, who do not buy into the divisive ethno-politics of the pro-illegal alien side. Their main emphasis is to expose the rampant corruption in their city.

The group of Huntington Park residents that I met all seemed to voice a sense of desperation, feeling trapped in a world of corruption and lawlessness, and a world that didn’t operate under the same laws and customs that they felt the rest of the country did. Yet this small determined group fought valiantly, insisting that the Huntington Park City Council needs to uphold the laws of the United States and protect the rights of citizens and legal residents.

The residents that were battling the Huntington Park city council, including Councilman Valentin Amezquita seemed to be  truly impressed (bordering on amazement) that Americans from outside the area cared about what was happening in Huntington Park and thanked us sincerely for coming down to help them.

Just like the City of Bell, Huntington Park is a city with few English-speakers, a large population of illegal aliens and non-citizens, and little or no interaction with the rest of American society.

Neighboring Bell and Vernon are prime examples of what happens in environments like this. Where respect for immigration laws has been undermined by government officials seeking political advantage, respect for other laws quickly dissipates as well, eroding the foundation of civil society. Sadly, this pathology of corruption is taking root in all too many places in California and across the nation.

The author of this guest opinion is Greg Aprahamian.

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  1. avatar

    The federal government forces government employees to celebrate ethnic and cultural diversity. Almost every month posters are hung to indicate which culture we are to celebrate, embrace and have shoved down our throats. When will the white Euro-American population realize that ethnic and cultural diversity does not UNITE us. Instead, it does just the opposite. Its diversive. It DIVIDES us. If you have any question about this just ask the Native-Americans how multiculturalism worked out for them. And the answer is? Not to well. They lost their land, language, and culture.

  2. avatar

    I am an American of Mexican decent. My parents were born here as was my grandmother. I do not support illegal immigration and I am loudly vocal in my opposition. The self appointed Latin activists like Jorge Ramos and groups like La Raza do not represent me or my family. We are Americans. Period. They are racist, narcissistic opportunists. The term “Chicano” is a made up word by ignorant morons and if you want to see my mother fly off the handle mention that term in her presence.

    • avatar
      Concerned Citizen on

      THANK YOU! And I think we should DEPORT the congressman Gutierrez!! He is a TRAITOR! Why is he so passionate about letting MILLIONS of people who broke the laws of the U.S. coming here ILLEGALLY stay? It doesn’t make sense!!
      SUPPORT TRUMP THEN!! And maybe we can get a handle on ILLEGAL immigration!! I am all for LEGAL immigration, but we are being nothing less than INVADED!!!!!!!!

  3. avatar
    Chanell Temple on

    The Huntington Park meeting is just an example showing American Citizens taking charge and making a move to take back this country. Citizens are coming together from all nationalities to take back control of this country because they don’t feel represented anymore. I was there at the H.P. City Council meeting and Latinos, Blacks, Whites all stood together to voice their opinions about the appointments of the two illegal immigrants to the commission positions. It was satisfying to witness that people across the County of L.A. are finally waking up and saying “Enough is Enough.” If the government won’t stop this invasion, the people will step forward and stop this invasion. It has been too many people (American Citizens) who have suffered behind the decision to “open the border,” by any means necessary. People want the government to take care of Americas first before they continue to bring millions of illegal immigrants into this country at the expense of Tax Payer’s money.

  4. avatar

    I, too, attended the Huntington Park City Council meeting to protest the appointment of two illegal aliens to the city commissions, even though they are unpaid positions, since citizens should receive these appointments. Like the author of this article, I was astonished to hear some residents speak to the level of corruption with documented proof. My heart went out to one man who has lived in this city for over 35 years, has had his property vandalized multiple times, and been told by illegal aliens that “this is Mexico — move!” How the City Council members could sit there knowing that 3 of them had filed fraudulent applications, since they did not live in the city, and act like it was “business as usual” was appalling. Often one hears about “bringing illegal aliens out of the shadows,” but they are not in the shadows any more. Several announced before they spoke that they are “undocumented” as though it was a matter of pride to be a lawbreaker! It was sadly ironic to be given headsets so that we could have some speakers’ comments translated into English. This is an English-speaking country and all who want to speak at a civic meeting should be able to speak English. I hope the residents do follow through with their recall plans. It is important to shed light on corruption in order for corrective action to be taken.

  5. avatar
    Carol Schlaepfer on

    “We the People Rising” and ALL the people across America are waking up in record numbers to stop the maddness of ILLEGAL immigration and the lawlessnessthat goes hand and hand with it. We say ENOUGH to these evil people.
    Your time in our country, destroying it, is over. Go back to your country of origen or face jail time as we the people expose your evil and disrespectful way’s.

  6. avatar

    You import tribal cultures and expect them to embrace Anglo-Saxon values just because they now live in America, yeah right. The machismo culture of Mexico is replacing the established civilized California communities one by one.

    One of the functions of a well oiled federal immigration system is to prevent alien cultures from settling in an area and laying their cultural claim to it. Remember the Irish immigrants who wanted their own state? We didn’t allow the Irish to carve out an enclave they were settled in various areas and assimilated.

    • avatar

      What’s ironic is that the Mexican constitution says that immigration to Mexico should not upset the ethnic balance of that country. A little bit of hypocrisy, when they are always trying to portray us as bigots because we prefer to remain a European style nation and not some Latin American corrupt hellhole?

  7. avatar

    Driving thru the City of Bell Is sad. It looks like Tia Juana. I spoke to a 35yr. restident who told me ” This town used to be a nice place to live” Lawlessness created this. Americans Stand Up , Fight.

  8. avatar

    Typical of this type of city. Politicians steal from their own people and put others in positions who will do what their told and not make noise.

  9. avatar

    Not much different than what is happening in our federal government, where the majority are truly not representatives of U.S. citizens, but only parasites of the people out to enrich themselves at our expense.

  10. avatar

    “Feeling trapped in a world of corruption and lawlessness..” Yep, just like Mexico and the Latin American countries they left behind. Simon Bolivar, the Liberator of South America, fought to defeat Spanish colonialism. But he ultimately felt that it was for naught because those countries just ended up with one corrupt government after another, punctuated by endless civil wars.