In addition to this post, this disturbing story was discussed at LimitstoGrowth.org in March 2006, but received little national attention. The original news story in the LA Times is no longer available on that newspaper’s website archive. Read here about this experiment in lawlessness, miles from America’s second-largest city.

Take a good look of what happens when Mexicans take over a town (map of Maywood), this one near Los Angeles. Forget about American core beliefs about equal justice under the law, a two-tiered system exists in Maywood, where citizens are required to obey the laws and pay the fines, but "immigrants" (i.e., illegal aliens) are cut unimaginable slack.
Foreigners are not expected to have drivers licenses or car tags, nope, too oppressive. That annoying law stuff is for the suckers, er citizens.
Welcome to the third world, here in America, thanks to open borders. [From the LA Times]
In Maywood, where 96% of the residents are Latino, and more than half are foreign-born, the City Council has vowed to make the municipality a "sanctuary city" for illegal immigrants, and over the last few months it has set out to prove it.
First, the city eliminated the Police Department’s traffic division after complaints that officers unfairly targeted illegal immigrants. Then it made it much more difficult for police to tow cars whose owners didn’t have driver’s licenses, a practice that affected mostly undocumented people who could not obtain licenses.
In January, the City Council passed a resolution opposing a proposed federal law that would criminalize illegal immigration and make local police departments enforce immigration law. Now, some in the community are pushing to rename one of the city’s elementary schools after former Mexican President Benito Juarez and debating measures to improve the lives of illegal immigrants.
No traffic enforcement! That sounds attractive and safe. Let’s all take a drive through Maywood!
The salient feature of so-called under developed countries is their disregard for the rule of law. Having visited a number of such countries, I can attest to the devastating results of living under a government that does not enforce consistently and fairly rights to life, liberty, or property.
No modern society can prosper without the establishment and protection of these basic rights because without such protections, most people will not invest in the future, will not build for tomorrow. Any investment involves an expectation of return, but if that return can be confiscated by governmental or criminal fiat, than few would take the risk of losing today’s asset or efforts for the promise of a better tomorrow. No society can thrive without the rule of law.
At its heart, the immigration debate is about the rule of law. Two sides have clearly emerged: Those who insist that, to preserve order in society and provide for a better future, we must enforce our laws; and those who, for a multitude of often-conflicting reasons, believe that immigration laws can be ignored without destroying something of great civic value.
In Maywood, CA, we can see the results of the fatally-flawed world view of those who advocate for illegality and wanton disregard of the rule of law. Choose to ignore one law, and soon others become inconvenient, too. It’s not hard to imagine lax enforcement of property crime laws in Maywood, based upon the same justification for abandoning traffic enforcement: Disproportionate impact on those who choose to enter and live illegally in our country.
From Mayberry, RFD to Maywood, CA in less than 40 years. God help us.