Police said they were stunned by the cycle of events, which began at an apartment building in Garden Grove and then spread to businesses. https://t.co/2FuKcTET0g— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 8, 2019
More than 400 women associated with the Irvine location have given birth at one Orange County hospital since 2013, agents wrote in the affidavit. One of the women paid $4,080 out of $28,845 in hospital bills when her bank account showed charges at Wynn Las Vegas and purchases at Rolex and Louis Vuitton stores, the affidavit said.Nope, no massive protests against Chinese birth tourists committing immigration fraud and cheating local hospitals out of maternity costs. And the Asian-American community has demonstrated extremely slow assimilation into American political culture. It's half Asian-American in Irvine, and the population's large presence continues to drive Anglo-American retail institutions out of the area. The 99 Ranch Market across from my neighborhood is the anchor store for a nearly entirely Asian-American shopping center. Only the McDonald's and KFC remain from a least a half a dozen American restaurants, including Baskin Robbins, Marie Calendar's, and Subway.
The political crisis over homelessness in Orange County approached a crucial moment Tuesday as a federal judge raised the prospect of barring local governments from enforcing anti-camping ordinances if officials cannot create temporary shelters for hundreds being swept out of tent cities.Keep reading.
The county for weeks has been struggling to find locations to place the homeless after removing them from an encampment along the Santa Ana River. A plan to place temporary shelters in Irvine, Laguna Niguel and Huntington Beach died amid loud protests from residents last week, and the problem is expected to get worse as officials move to clear out another tent city at the Santa Ana Civic Center.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter expressed frustration at the political stalemate during a hearing Tuesday. He said he could not decide where the shelters should go, but said he could prohibit cities from enforcing laws that ban people from camping in public spaces such as parks and river ways. Carter said that without those laws, Orange County communities could become magnets for homeless people.
In essence, the judge said Orange County can't have it both ways.
"We can't criminalize homeless by citing them in one location, and citing them in another location simply for being homeless," Carter said.
Carter is overseeing a case brought by homeless advocates trying to stop the removal of the homeless encampments. He stressed that the shelters don't have to be fancy, only that they be able to serve those who have nowhere else to live.
"This doesn't have to be a nice thing," Carter said. "It just has to be humane and dignified. That will probably get us through this crisis."
The county's two armories, which provide temporary shelter for up to 400 homeless individuals during the winter, are scheduled to close this month — adding a new layer of urgency as space is limited in other shelters throughout the county. Fullerton officials requested to keep the armory in their city open, but it's not clear if that will happen.
Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Andrew Do said he is pessimistic about the county and city officials finding a solution unless Carter steps in.
"At this point, I see us — the county — and the cities being at a standstill," Do said. "With each passing day we betray our responsibility to care for all of our residents as required by law."
Residents in Irvine and other cities have said they don't want homeless shelters in their communities, which is the same argument made by neighborhoods along the Santa Ana River that prompted officials to clear out the camps in the first place.
But Carter said the situation has forced certain cities to take on a disproportionate burden. He singled out Santa Ana, home to the county's only major emergency shelter
"Santa Ana is being forced to absorb all of the homeless because they're brought to this area for assessments and services," Carter said. "It's disproportionate."
Data presented by Santa Ana during the hearing back up that claim...
"Sanctuary cities" should wear the label proudly https://t.co/ficPkrQCxw— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) March 7, 2017
Recent rain gives glimmer of hope that the #drought could come to an end in Southern California https://t.co/JP2AHhgjM8
— Jessica Kwong (@JessicaGKwong) January 13, 2017
California is quickly becoming a battleground for immigration policy as a cross-section of leaders across the state vowed to fight any plans by President-elect Donald Trump to deport thousands of people in the U.S. illegally.Good luck people.
Trump said during the presidential campaign that he’ll build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and deport people in the country illegally. He is expected to unwind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an initiative by President Obama that protects immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
California has some of the nation’s most liberal policies when it comes to handling immigrants here illegally. The state has allowed them to get driver’s licenses, health coverage for children and in-state tuition. Institutions like churches also support immigrants.
But the Golden State could be on a collision course with Trump if he pushes hard-line immigration policies enthusiastically backed by many of his supporters.
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez led an interfaith prayer service Thursday night in which he reassured immigrants in the country illegally that the church would continue supporting them.
“In the past couple days since the election … we have children in our schools who are scared,” Gomez told the congregation. “They think the government is going to come and deport their parents.”
At a hastily convened meeting Friday at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti warned that the city will question Trump’s decisions on immigration.
“If the first day, as president, we see something that is hostile to our people, hostile to our city, bad for our economy, bad for our security, we will speak up, speak out, act up and act out,” Garcetti said.
The mayor also said police would continue to enforce Special Order 40, which bars officers from asking people about their immigration status.
Kamala Harris, in her first appearance since winning her U.S. Senate race, also held an event Thursday at CHIRLA to announce her support for immigrants and criticize Trump’s plan for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Several days of street demonstrations in Los Angeles and other cities have followed Trump’s election, with protesters denouncing the Republican’s views on issues such as immigration. About 200 people were arrested Thursday night in downtown Los Angeles, according to LAPD Officer Tony Im.
Another anti-Trump protest is planned Saturday for MacArthur Park.
Of the 742,000 people across the country protected under DACA, about 200,000 are in Los Angeles County, according to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
Angelica Salas, CHIRLA’s executive director, said her office is being inundated with requests from immigrants about their status.
Marissa Montes, co-director of the Loyola Immigrant Justice Center, helps run a weekly meeting at the Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights. She said twice as many people — about 40 — showed up at this week’s forum Wednesday.
“People came out because of fear,” Montes said. “It was incredibly heartbreaking to tell people that I couldn’t tell them what was ahead.”
As president, Donald Trump can move swiftly to gut President Obama’s signature immigration policies by ramping up deportations and ending a program that has given temporary work permits to immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
Nearly a third of the 742,000 so-called Dreamers — those given protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — live in California and are potentially at risk of losing legal status.
Using the same executive authority that Obama claimed to create DACA and other initiatives, Trump also can quickly fulfill his promises to severely restrict the number of refugees admitted each year and to effectively bar visitors from countries with large Muslim populations.
Trump said Thursday, after meeting with Obama at the White House and Congressional leaders on Capitol Hill, that immigration and border security would be among his top priorities when he takes office in January.
“People will be really, really happy,” he said. Asked if he would work with Congress to ban Muslim immigrants, Trump walked away without answering.
Trump’s aides have begun drafting instructions that he can issue on his first day in office for the nation’s 5,000 deportation officers to begin rounding up more people for removals, according to two advisors to his transition team.
“There is vast potential to increase the level of deportations without adding personnel,” said Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and a member of Trump’s immigration policy transition team.
By giving more authority to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Trump easily could boost deportations by more than 75% in his first year in office, Kobach said.
That would meet the record set in 2012, at the end of Obama’s first term, when more than 400,000 people were deported. It fell to 235,00 last year after illegal immigration fell, and after agents were ordered to focus first on deporting criminals, repeat immigration violators and recent arrivals.
Under Trump, Kobach said, agents likely will return to raiding workplaces and checking workers’ status. That practice roiled immigrant communities in the final two years of George W. Bush’s presidency and was stopped when Obama came to office.
Trump may find it far more difficult to fulfill other prominent promises, however. They include building a tall wall along the entire border with Mexico and deporting millions more people.
Both proposals would require major appropriations from a Republican-led Congress that wants to cut spending, not increase it. It would require hammering out deals with Democrats who fiercely opposed Trump’s proposals on the campaign trail.
Trump has said the wall could cost up to $12 billion to build. An analysis published by MIT Technology Review estimated the cost at $38 billion, nearly the entire annual budget for the 22 federal agencies in the Department of Homeland Security...
SANTA ANA – Sad. Nervous. Angry. Confused.Well, it's not going to be the same for the next four years at least, and hopefully longer. One thing that won't be the same is illegal aliens won't have a completely open sanctuary. There's a crackdown coming. How hard it's going to be I don't know, but some reports yesterday noted that an acceleration of deportations is on the Trump agenda come January. Personally, I'd rather see expedited deportations than a big push to build the wall, which would get bogged down in lawsuits, from what I understand. If illegals know they're going to be caught and punished, it's less likely they'll come in the first place.
As they sat in a circle Thursday morning, students in Maria Soberanis’ eighth-grade class at Spurgeon Intermediate School had a lot to say about the presidential election.
“I feel scared they’re going to take away my mom and dad and grandma,” one girl softly shared with some 20 classmates.
Such circles have been repeated since Election Day across the Spurgeon campus and other schools in the Santa Ana Unified School District, with teachers trying to help students in the wake of Donald Trump’s election.
“He made a lot of people in my family cry,” Angel Avelar, 13, said.
Meanwhile, the Anaheim Union High School District told parents in recorded phone calls Thursday night that teachers and administrators “are being extra vigilant in supporting those who express fear or anxiety.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s board president sent out a message saying support would be offered to those who need it.
And Tom Torlakson, who oversees the state’s public schools, issued a statement late Thursday: “The election outcome has caused deep concern among many students and their families. ...
“In California, diversity is strength," he said. “And I want to tell young women and girls that they will always be safe, be respected, and be protected at school.”
In Santa Ana Unified, children gathered in circles, to talk.
“It doesn’t mean that it makes everything better, but it offers them a chance for their voices to be heard and a chance to recognize that they’re not alone," said Spurgeon's principal, Stuart Caldwell.
On Wednesday, some children had broken down crying, he said. One child said her family was already packing suitcases. Many boys and girls thought deportations would be imminent.
In Soberanis’ class, the eighth-graders expressed disappointment and sadness that so many Americans voted for Trump, a candidate who has disparaged women, called Mexicans criminals and demanded the immediate deportations of people living in the country illegally.
The school district, Orange County’s largest, is 96 percent Latino.
One student questioned whether America would ever be the same again...
Bac Duong, one of the three inmates who escaped from the Orange County Men’s Central Jail, turned himself in Friday morning, said Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens.More.
Duong, 43, was arrested about 11:50 a.m. after he got in touch with a woman in Santa Ana. He was arrested without incident near the Auto Electric Rebuilders shop at 1421 N. Harbor Blvd.
Trin Nguyen, whose father-in-law owns the shop, said Duong walked into the building and told his wife that he wanted to turn himself in. He said his wife seemed scared. She called police.
Nguyen, who has known Duong for 10 years, said “he's a good friend of mine, he's a good person. I think he was scared. He just showed up and told my wife.”
Other employees at the store also spoke to the throng of media:
[VIDEOS EMBEDDED AT THE STORY.]
The other inmates – Hossein Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu – were not arrested and are still fugitives. After the arrest, investigators conducted a car-by-car search in the Auto Electric Rebuilders parking lot with their guns drawn. They are also searching an adjacent motel.
Duong had been held on an attempted murder charge after a shooting in Santa Ana in November.
Investigators said Duong stole a car on Saturday, and they believe all three inmates were living in the white utility van. That GMC van is still missing...
31-year-old man arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run driving in the Halloween collision in Santa Ana that left three girls dead has a years-long criminal history and was driving on a suspended license, court records show.I can hardly breathe as I write this post.
Jaquinn Bell, a resident of Orange, was arrested Sunday outside a Motel 6 in Stanton, Santa Ana police said at a Monday news conference. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Court records in Orange County Superior Court show that Bell was convicted of hit-and-run driving and driving under the influence in August.
He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, ordered to serve three years of probation and enroll in both an alcohol abuse and child abuse treatment program, court records show.
In the deadly crash on Halloween night, police said that Bell was driving with his two children, a 17-year-old boy and 14-year-old daughter.
Police said they are attempting to determine whether Bell was driving under the influence at the time of the Friday night incident.
Police said they initially detained Bell's mother and half-sister as well as his two children in connection with the incident but subsequently released everyone but Bell.
Bell’s criminal record dates back until at least 2009 when he pleaded guilty to corporal injury on a spouse or co-habitant and was given probation, which court records show has been revoked seven times since then.
The probation violations included a 2009 case in which he was charged with driving under the influence and driving on a suspended license. He was again given probation after he pleaded guilty the following year, court records show.
In 2010, he pleaded guilty to violating a protective order and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and probation and was ordered to complete a treatment program for batterers, court documents show.
His probation was revoked and then reinstated several additional times in the subsequent years, including for his August arrest for hit-and-run driving and driving under the influence.
His driver’s license was suspended in early October – 17 days before the crashed that killed the three trick-or-treaters in Santa Ana.
Twin sisters Lexia and Lexandra Perez and their friend, Andrea Gonzales, were struck crossing the road at Old Grand Street and Fairhaven Avenue on Friday at about 6:45 p.m. ...
Clarissa Cisneros, 17, who lives on Fairhaven Avenue, was putting up Halloween decorations when she heard a man screaming and then a bang. Bodies flew in the air as a black SUV sped away.More at CBS News Los Angeles, "Santa Ana Community Grieving Loss of 3 Teens Killed While Trick-or-Treating."
Cisneros thought they were dummies and it was a fake scene, but when she walked up to one of the bodies, pushing the hair back to see the face, she realized the girl was real.
“I knew she was dead. Her eyes were closed. She looked peaceful,” Cisneros said.
Cisneros found some glow sticks and started directing cars away from the bodies. Meanwhile, her brother tended to the victims.
By early afternoon Saturday, about 70 people were gathered at a curbside memorial, leaving candles, bouquets and stuffed toys.
On the first day of school at Spurgeon Intermediate, after the first bell had rung and administrators swept the halls for stragglers, new Principal Todd Irving faced dozens of parents in a room near his office. A translator stood at his side.Continue reading.
Eliazar Arines, whose son is in the eighth grade, told Irving that last year her boy was ridiculed so mercilessly that he was hospitalized for depression.
"I came to complain five times, and no one paid attention to me," she said, her voice cracking.
Edelmira Rodriguez told Irving her son's ID was snatched and marked up with slurs. She too complained, and nothing was done.
One woman, who recently moved to Santa Ana from Tustin, said what many in the room were thinking:
"When someone says Spurgeon, it's like the worst thing in the world."
Spurgeon Intermediate in Santa Ana sits squarely in the center of one of the poorest ZIP Codes in Orange County. For years, it has consistently ranked one of the lowest-performing schools in the region. But early this year, things got even worse.
In March, 36 teachers and employees took the unusual step of filing a hostile work environment complaint against the administration and students. Children were accosting adults, smoking marijuana, making sexual noises in class, the complaint said. By the end of the school year, more than 40% of the students had been suspended for a total of more than 800 days.
Things were so bad, one teacher said, it was like "Lord of the Flies."
