A federal judge won't close a trailer park on the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Reservation in southern California despite health and safety problems at the facility.

Judge Stephen G. Larson said the Desert Mobile Home Park will stay open for another two years under a receiver. Improvements will be made to the facility but residents will be encouraged to move elsewhere.

"To close the park under these conditions would create one of the largest forced migrations in state history since the Japanese internment," Larson said in his ruling from the bench, according to news reports.

Larson criticized the Bureau of Indian Affairs for failing to tell owner Harvey Duro how to operate the facility. He also said Duro knowingly violated the law by keeping it in such poor condition.

An estimated 2,000 residents of the trailer park, also known as Duroville, are Purepecha from Mexico. They created their own tribal council inside the facility.

Get the Story:
Duroville mobile home park will not close (The Los Angeles Times 5/1)
Federal judge not closing Duroville, cites lack of alternate place for its residents to live (The Riverside Press-Enterprise 5/1)
Judge refuses to shut down Duroville (AP 4/30)

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