Two illegal immigrants were appointed to serve as city commissioners in Huntington Park, Calif., Monday night.
City council member Jhonny Pineda appointed Julian Zatarain, 21, to the Parks and Recreation Commission, and Francisco Medina, 29, to the Health and Education Commission. Both men were born in Mexico and will be considered volunteers, meaning they will not receive the $75 monthly stipend normally given to officials, reports KPCC.
"They have been community volunteers for a lot of years," Pineda said. "They've always given to the community...they just happen to be undocumented."
Neither met the requirements for temporary legal status under President Obama's 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The City Attorney's office found no law on the books that would prevent either man from serving as commissioners, according to Pineda. Huntington Park is the first city in California to appoint undocumented immigrants to commissioner positions, a spokesman for Pineda told KPCC.
Some 58,000 people live in Huntington Park, located in Los Angeles County, south of downtown Los Angeles. Fifty percent of its population is foreign-born and 97 percent of its residents are Latino, and it has long been an entry point for immigrants coming into the country illegally, according to The International Business Times. Several years ago, the neighboring city of Maywood declared itself a "sanctuary city" that would protect illegal immigrants from being deported, according to the LA Times.
The Monday night council meeting was packed with residents speaking out both in favor and against the appointments, with one man praising the immigrants for their courage and another woman accusing them of "breaking the law."
One of those in opposition was former council member Linda Caraballo. "A lot of residents who I spoke to don't want this to happen. I think it is exploitation. Why is it that an undocumented illegal person is told you can take a position but we are not going to pay you? That I wrong," Caraballo said, according to KPCC.
Huntington Park Mayor Karina Macias voiced support for the men becoming commissioners. "They have every right to be at that table, because they are part of our community, and I'll leave it at that," she said during the meeting, garnering applause.
