Los Angeles Times - 26.11.2019

B4 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2019 S LATIMES.COM

In-N-Out Burger and the
California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection
have settled a lawsuit alleg-
ing the restaurant company
sparked a 2017 brush fire.
The Huasna fire started
the afternoon of Sept. 20,
2017, at 9815 Huasna Road in
Arroyo Grande — more than
20 miles from the nearest In-
N-Out restaurant — and
burned 244 acres before fire-
fighters were able to fully
contain it.
In a lawsuit filed in Sep-
tember, Cal Fire said it
wanted In-N-Out to pay the
agency $1.2 million for the
costs it incurred in respond-
ing to and investigating the
fire, in addition to covering
attorney fees.
“In-N-Out Burger and
Cal-Fire have amicably
agreed to settle a lawsuit in-
volving a fire that occurred
over two years ago in Sep-
tember 2017,” In-N-Out said
in a statement. “The terms
of the settlement are not
public and due to litigation
the parties do not expect
to have any further com-
ment.”
According to the lawsuit,
a man employed by In-N-
Out was mowing the lawn on
company-owned property
the day the fire broke out.
The property was cov-
ered in dry grass and brush,
and the weather was windy
and warm, Cal Fire said in
the lawsuit. As the employee
was mowing the lawn, chaff
built up on the mower’s deck
and the tractor’s “power
take off clutch” failed, caus-
ing it to ignite the chaff,
which blew off the mower
deck.
The In-N-Out employee
“smelled smoke and saw a
fire burning on the tractor’s
mower deck before watching
that fire spread to the sur-
rounding dry annual grasses
and scattered brush,” the
lawsuit states.
Cal Fire alleges In-N-Out
and the employee should
have known the risks of op-
erating the tractor under the
warm, windy conditions and
should have taken the neces-
sary precautions.
“Wildland fires such as
the Huasna fire ordinarily
do not happen unless some-
one was negligent,” Cal Fire
said in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit,
health and safety codes al-
low the agency to recover fire
suppression, investigation,
accounting and other costs if
someone allows a fire to be
ignited due to negligence.
Cal Fire demanded pay-
ment from the restaurant on
March 13 and Aug. 30, but did
not receive any, according to
the lawsuit. Neither attor-
neys for Cal Fire nor In-N-
Out would disclose the set-
tlement amount.

Burger

chain

settles

over fire

In-N-Out agrees with

state claim that spark

from a lawnmower

caused a 2017 blaze.

By Alejandra
Reyes-Velarde

Huizar staffer Pauline Me-

dina filed a lawsuit contain-

ing similar claims. Medina,

who has a son with one of

Huizar’s brothers, also al-

leged that staffers were in-

structed to raise money for

Salesian High School, where

the councilman’s wife spent

several years working as a

paid fundraiser.

Huizar previously called

Alvarez’s allegations “com-

pletely false” and referred to

Medina’s claims as “crazy.”

The councilman also de-

scribed Medina as a disgrun-

tled former employee who

“left on her own accord after

being confronted with an in-

vestigation that revealed her

misconduct.”

Leon, Medina and Alva-

rez are all represented by

Terrence Jones, a Whittier-

based attorney.

In his claim, Leon said

Huizar also retaliated

against him for meeting with

City Atty. Mike Feuer’s office

to discuss the Alvarez and

Medina lawsuits.

Jones declined to directly

address Huizar’s conflict-of-

interest allegations, saying

instead that “the public

should be leery of Huizar’s

hyperbole and spin.”

“The council member

knows quite well that Mr.

Leon, having served as

Huizar’s campaign manager

for his reelection bid against

former Los Angeles County

Supervisor Gloria Molina, is

in a better position than

most to credibly speak

about the goings on in that

office. I can see how that

would make him nervous,”

Jones said in an email.

Leon has worked off and

on for Huizar over the last 12

years. According to his

LinkedIn page, he was a

staffer for the councilman

from 2007 to 2011, then did

stints with the city attor-

ney’s office and the district

attorney’s office.

After working on

Huizar’s reelection cam-

paign, he returned as a

Huizar staffer, becoming di-

rector of external affairs, the

website says.

Times staff writer Emily

Alpert Reyes contributed to

this report.

been confronted with con-
flict-of-interest questions,
Huizar said. “This is an obvi-
ous attempt by Jesse to de-
flect from his unethical be-
havior,” he said.
At City Hall, submitting a
claim is a step that fre-
quently leads to the filing of
a lawsuit.
Leon has been earning
more than $101,000 annually
as a council aide, according
to a spokesman for the city’s
personnel department, and
is still on the payroll, city offi-
cials said.
Leon submitted an appli-
cation to the Department of
Cannabis Regulation to be
vetted as a “social equity”
applicant, a key step in be-
coming eligible to apply for
the latest round of licensing,
according to agency records.
The social equity program
aims to assist marijuana
entrepreneurs from commu-
nities disproportionately af-
fected by the war on drugs.
Leon did not ultimately
file an application to run a
cannabis business, accord-
ing to department records.

The dispute between

Huizar and his aide comes

roughly a year after FBI

agents raided Huizar’s

home and offices.

Investigators issued sub-

poenas to real estate devel-

opers seeking information

on contributions made to

Huizar’s reelection bid, his

officeholder committee, any

legal defense fund, his alma

mater, Bishop Mora Sale-

sian High School, and two

political committees with

ties to the councilman.

Huizar’s name also ap-

peared in a search warrant

filed last year by investiga-

tors seeking possible evi-

dence of bribery, kickbacks,

extortion and money laun-

dering. The warrant named

12 others, including Council-

man Curren Price, Council

President Herb Wesson’s

chief of staff and two Huizar

aides.

Leon is the third Huizar

staffer since last year to

accuse the councilman of en-

gaging in retaliation.

In October 2018, former

Huizar aide Mayra Alvarez

filed a lawsuit alleging she

was punished for voicing

concerns that her boss was

having an affair with an aide

and committing “potential

legal and ethical violations.”

A week later, former

Third aide accuses city councilman of retaliation

[Huizar, from B1]

JOSE HUIZAR calls a retaliation claim by an aide

“absolutely false.” Huizar’s home and officers were

raided last year by the FBI as part of an investigation.

Katie FalkenbergLos Angeles Times

MEXICALI, Mexico —

Plans to open a federal shel-

ter for migrants here have

stalled after neighbors vehe-

mently protested and suc-

cessfully convinced Baja

California’s new governor to

shelve it.

According to human

rights workers on both sides

of the border, the change

calls into question what

Mexico is actually doing to

protect asylum seekers re-

turned to border regions

under a program called the

Migrant Protection Proto-

cols.

Baja California Gov.

Jaime Bonilla said last week

that the federal shelter

might not open at all be-

cause residents are opposed

to it and because “it might

not be needed.”

Human rights advocates

say a lack of public support

and no government over-

sight of private shelters in

Mexicali has caused danger-

ous living conditions for asy-

lum seekers that allows shel-

ters to exploit the vulnerable

people they are meant to

protect.

The majority of residents

in the neighborhood in cen-

tral Mexicali where the fed-

eral shelter was slated to

open said they are ada-

mantly opposed to it. A few

people who work or go to the

gym near the location said

they supported the idea.

Margarita Rubio, 53, has

lived in the Conjunto Ur-

bano Universitario neigh-

borhood in Mexicali for 20

years. Her home on Avenida

Bachilleres is one street

north of the planned shelter

site, which is a shuttered

grocery store.

“We already have enough

problems with the high

crime that is here. We don’t

need other types of prob-

lems that will come with this

magnitude of people,” said

Rubio, adding that though

her specific neighborhood is

quiet and tranquil, the re-

gion, in general, is strug-

gling.

Rubio said she under-

stands most immigrants are

fleeing violence in their

home countries, but added

that Mexico has many mi-

grants who come north to

Baja California for the same

reasons.

“The majority are looking

for better lives. It is under-

standable. In fact, even from

here, from the same country,

Mexico, they also come

here,” she said.

Carlos Alberto Flores, 25,

who goes to the Ultra Fit-

ness Gym on Calle Heroico

Colegio Militar next door to

the proposed shelter site

said he thinks the neighbors

are overreacting.

“I think everyone de-

serves an opportunity, espe-

cially when they arrive in a

new place. The majority

come here to work,” said Flo-

res, who said, unlike many of

his neighbors, he didn’t be-

lieve the migrants would

cause problems.

“If they cause problems,

then they can just take the

individuals who do out of

here,” Flores said.

In October, nearly 200

people protested outside the

now empty building, a for-

mer Soriana grocery store

that is now shuttered.

At the protest, children

and adults waved yellow “No

Albergue” (“No Shelter”)

signs, chanting “No to the

shelter” and “We don’t want

it,” according to neighbors

who attended and posted

videos to Facebook and the

Desert Sun.

The shelter was planned

as a response to shifts in U.S.

immigration policy under

the Trump administration,

specifically for migrants

who have been returned to

Mexicali under the United

States’ “Remain in Mexico”

program, also known as Mi-

grant Protection Protocols,

or MPP.

Under the program, mi-

grants are sent back to Mexi-

co to await the outcomes of

their U.S. asylum cases.

Human rights workers

and attorneys dispute the

U.S. government’s name for

the program because they

say it gives the false impres-

sion that migrants are being

protected in Mexico. In-

stead, some call it the “Mi-

grant Persecution Proto-

cols.”

Margaret Cargioli, a

managing attorney for the

Immigrant Defenders Law

Center, is among those who

believe the government’s

name for the program is mis-

leading.

“Under the Remain in

Mexico program, which is

also referred to as the Mi-

grant Persecution Protocol,

I have met many honest and

genuinely afraid men, wom-

en and children,” Cargioli

said this month at a news

conference about MPP.

“While in Mexico, they’re

living in shelters in deplor-

able conditions. Many don’t

have the right to work. They

have no access to social serv-

ices. Children have prob-

lems to attend school, for ex-

ample,” Cargioli added.

This year, the Trump ad-

ministration began return-

ing asylum seekers to Mexi-

co, rolling out the program

in Tijuana and then expand-

ing it along the southwest-

ern border. The U.S. Depart-

ment of Homeland Security

said the policy change was

aimed at deterring migrants

from seeking U.S. asylum

and weeding out those who

did not have valid asylum

claims. Officials said the

program has been success-

ful.

Monika Langarica, an

immigrant rights staff attor-

ney at the American Civil

Liberties Union of San Diego

and Imperial Counties,

spoke recently about it at a

news conference announc-

ing a lawsuit against the U.S.

government for not allowing

asylum seekers adequate ac-

cess to legal counsel.

“MPP or Remain in Mexi-

co exposes vulnerable mi-

grants to danger and hor-

rible conditions in a country

that is not their own. In

Mexico, many of the fears

that drove people like our

plaintiffs to flee their coun-

tries and their homes with

their children — those

fears, including rape, extor-

tion, kidnapping — come to

life once more,” Langarica

said.

Human Rights First, an

international human rights

organization, has docu-

mented at least 110 publicly

reported cases of rape, kid-

napping, sexual exploita-

tion, assault and other vi-

olent crimes against asylum

seekers returned to Mexico

since MPP began.

While campaigning for

office, Mexican President

Andrés Manuel López

Obrador vowed he would

not do the United States’

“dirty work” by stopping

Central American migrants

intent on crossing Mexico to

reach the U.S. Instead, he

promised to support mi-

grants in Mexico with refuge,

jobs and respect for their hu-

man rights.

The first few months of

his presidency seemed to re-

flect that goal with humani-

tarian visas issued to mi-

grants, a program that con-

nected them with jobs and a

federal shelter for migrants

set up on the eastern out-

skirts of Tijuana, which has

since been closed.

Then, President Trump

threatened in May to impose

punishing and escalating

tariffs on Mexico if the coun-

try did not drastically re-

duce the number of mi-

grants arriving at the U.S.-

Mexico border.

López Obrador appeared

to reverse course.

He deployed military

troops throughout the coun-

try aimed at stopping mi-

grants at Mexico’s southern

border and stopped issuing

visas that allowed migrants

to cross Mexico without fear

of deportation.

Like López Obrador, Bo-

nilla has also promised to

protect migrants.

“I come from a family of

migrants,” the governor said

in his inauguration speech

this month in Tijuana.

He did not respond to fol-

low-up questions about why

the shelter in Mexicali might

not be needed.

Human rights advocates

say there is a need for a

publicly run shelter in Mexi-

cali.

Kennji Kizuka, a senior

policy analyst of refugee pro-

tection for Human Rights

First, said he visited Mexi-

cali several months ago, dur-

ing the summer when many

migrants were suffering in

the sweltering heat of the

Sonoran Desert.

Kizuka said there were

“really awful conditions”

such as migrants who told

them their “kids were faint-

ing from heat and from a

lack of food and water.”

“The U.S. government

has repeatedly represented

that Mexico had agreed to

protect the humanitarian

rights of the people returned

under this program,” but

that has not been the case,

he said, because shelter,

food, education and health-

care have not been provided

in Mexico.

“We know the U.S. pro-

vided some funds to Mexico

to provide shelter, but it’s

questionable how those

funds have been used,”

Kizuka said.

Fry writes for the San Diego

Union-Tribune.

CLEMENTA PEREZholds her youngest, Jaily, 2, at the Hijo Prodigo shelter in Mexicali, Mexico. The facility used to be a movie theater.

Nelvin C. CepedaSan Diego Union-Tribune

Mexicali rejects migrant shelter

As plans stall, activists

question what Mexico

is actually doing to

protect returned

asylum seekers.

By Wendy Fry