Thread: Judge removers owner of CA. desert migrant park

Judge removes owner of Calif desert migrant park

The Associated Press 11:02 a.m. December 19, 2008

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The owner of a shabby mobile home park housing of thousands of migrant workers has failed to help fix conditions and is barred from any role in operating the Riverside County desert facility, a judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson said Harvey Duro failed to comply with a 21-point plan the judge issued months ago to fix health and safety problems at the Desert Mobile Home Park.
"With respect to Harvey Duro, the court is at the end of its line," Larson said Thursday.

For years, the federal government has tried to close the 40-acre Coachella Valley camp, popularly known as Duroville. The property on the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation has about 300 mobile homes. The population can grow to 6,000 during the valley's harvest season.

The park has been repeatedly cited for violations such as open sewage, faulty wiring and fire hazards.

In April, Larson set down conditions for keeping it open. But he said Duro made little effort to comply, failed to upgrade roads and fire systems and failed to borrow money to pay for engineering studies to upgrade the property.

An interim receiver for the park will be chosen next month, the judge announced.

The park went into receivership in February but Duro took over principal ownership again in the spring. In July, the nonprofit Duroville Renaissance Corp. began managing day-to-day operations, with Duro keeping a percentage of the monthly rent receipts.

However, the situation "is worse than it was a year ago or six months ago," said Leon W. Weidman of the U.S. attorney's office, which sued last year, seeking a permanent injunction to close the park.

Weidman asked the judge to immediately declare the park a public nuisance and give residents several months to move, but the judge rejected the idea.

He invited "any interested party" to come up with a plan for relocating residents if it is closed. He had asked the government to come up with such a plan but said many residents probably were in the country illegally and the issue of what to do with them "has become a political hot potato."

Larson set a hearing Feb. 23 to consider another government request to immediately close the park. If he rules against it, the issue of closing the park will proceed to trial in April.

Duro and his attorney, J. Scott Zundell, left court without making any statements.
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Information from: The Press-Enterprise, http://www.pe.com

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ndex=25099

The park has been repeatedly cited for violations such as open sewage, faulty wiring and fire hazards.

Eeewww!! Is this the "better life for my family" they come for??? Blech!!

Originally Posted by PatrioticMe

The park has been repeatedly cited for violations such as open sewage, faulty wiring and fire hazards.

Eeewww!! Is this the "better life for my family" they come for??? Blech!!

Actually, this is not surprising PM. These people have a unique knack for re-creating the very same environments from which they fled. The norm seems to be dirty, trash strewn, graffiti covered cesspools. I guess it reminds them of home.

What is surprising is this judge seems apparently willing to render his decision based on political correctness, as opposed to the actual law.

If these were American citizens, they would be given 60-90 days notice to vacate and then thrown on the street if they did not comply. However, because we are dealing with migrants and the apparent political "hot potato" they are, the gov is forced to come up with a "plan" to deal with these people if they want to legally condemn that trailer park.