SB 537: City or County of Los Angeles: memorial to forcibly deported Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants.

Existing law provides for various memorials and monuments on the grounds of the State Capitol. Existing law requires the Department of General Services to maintain state buildings and grounds.

Existing law, the Apology Act for the 1930s Mexican Repatriation Program, makes findings and declarations regarding the unconstitutional removal and coerced emigration of United States citizens and legal residents of Mexican descent, between the years 1929 and 1944, to Mexico from the United States during the 1930s Mexican Repatriation Program. Existing law expresses the apology of the State of California to those individuals who were illegally deported and coerced into emigrating to Mexico and requires that a plaque to commemorate those individuals be installed and maintained by the Department of Parks and Recreation in an appropriate public place in the City or County of Los Angeles.

This bill would authorize a nonprofit organization representing Mexican Americans or Mexican immigrants to enter into negotiations to plan, construct, and maintain a memorial to Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants who were forcibly deported from the United States during the Great Depression, as provided. The bill would require the memorial to be located at an appropriate public place in the City or County of Los Angeles. The bill would require the nonprofit organization to enter into negotiations with the Department of General Services and the state agency with jurisdiction over the state property where the memorial is proposed, where applicable, if the nonprofit organization proposes to locate the memorial on state property. The bill would require the nonprofit organization to submit a plan for the memorial to the department and the applicable state agency for review and approval. The bill would require these provisions to be funded exclusively through private sources.

This bill would, if the nonprofit organization proposes a site owned by the City of Los Angeles or the County of Los Angeles for location of the memorial, require the nonprofit organization to follow any procedures that the City of Los Angeles or the County of Los Angeles require to consider approving the proposed memorial.

This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles.