On a warm day, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo paused, wiped his forehead, and gestured toward the Folgers coffee can in the corner of his workspace.
He has told the story numerous times, but in light of current occurrences, he thought it was worthwhile to retell.
Gordo’s parents were undocumented for years. When he was a small boy, they moved to Pasadena and reared their family after crossing the border from Zacatecas, Mexico. Gordo’s mother was a seamstress in a factory that was once across from City Hall, while his father worked as a chef and dishwasher. The family’s home was a garage that had been transformed.
Gordo, the eldest child and self-described latchkey kid, claimed, “There was a Folgers coffee can under my parents’ bed, and in that can was cash, a list of names and phone numbers, copies of birth certificates, and identification cards.”
Gordo instructed me to take that can and go knock on the neighbor’s house to obtain help if my parents didn’t come home.
It’s not the original can in his office. It serves as both a reminder and a replica.
Families and communities have been devastated by federal raids throughout Southern California. Following arrests at car washes, building supply businesses, restaurants, the Garment District, and street vending sites, people have become terrified to leave their homes.
Gordo understands their emotions.
“To be honest, this is really painful and offensive because we lived in fear,” he remarked.
It hasn’t been evident in Pasadena, according to Gordo, whether the sweeps are being carried out by vigilantes or actual federal authorities. They don’t have any marks on their autos. They have shields over their faces. Their uniforms don’t provide an answer.
California
Data contradicts the Trump administration’s assertion that the sweeps were intended for criminals.
A man just got out of a car in Pasadena, flashed his emergency lights, and brandished a gun at onlookers before driving off.Gordo said that a number of men were arrested at a bus stop, some of whom were en route to work on construction projects in Altadena’s post-fire reconstruction.
In addition, the city postponed some swimming and other leisure activities on Saturday due to concerns of heightened federal enforcement. Gordo informed The Times that a number of guys had been pursued at Villa Parke by masked individuals wearing vests and firearms.
Gordo told me that they’re causing unstable, hazardous situations, and he worries that gunshots would fly through neighborhoods or that when police come on the scene, they won’t know what’s going on or who’s who.
Because some of the raids seem random and indiscriminate, Gordo added, even those with legal status are on edge. Despite Trump’s promise to bring in the worst of the worst, the majority of people detained in Southern California during the first ten days of June had no criminal histories, according to my colleague Rachel Uranga.
“I have my passport with me,” Gordo declared.
A large portion of our society is being stigmatized by the overreach. Even if you appear or sound like an immigrant, you are immediately viewed as an outsider by others, which is against the law and morality.
Advocates for immigrant rights have not always given Gordo’s views on immigration enforcement high marks. Gordo’s coffee can narrative was deemed interesting by the L.A. Progressive in 2017, but the then-councilman was accused of hesitating on a proposed municipal legislation that would have banned police interactions with immigration authorities.
Gordo was against local police having contact with ICE, according to the story, but he did occasionally say that he supported an exemption for terrible criminals.
Gordo told me that he felt the same way now as he did when he voted in favor of the ordinance, which was eventually approved unanimously. He stated that the great majority of undocumented immigrants are here to work hard and help their families. the same as his relatives. However, he continued, bad actors must face repercussions, and that is a criminal justice issue rather than an immigration one.
According to Gordo, the federal government or our own police should deal with the matter if they think someone has broken the law. However, they ought to do so in accordance with the US Constitution, as the current actions of the federal government violate due process.
Gordo adds that any discussion of immigration reform that would meet the demands of employers and provide immigrants with a route to even bigger contributions is also lacking.
The ability of federal lawmakers like Judy Chu to give oversight and answers is increasingly more crucial and under jeopardy as tens of thousands of immigrants are being kept in federal detention facilities.
He remembered that during the Carter administration, his family temporarily returned to Mexico when he was around ten years old in order to obtain legal status in the United States. Both his late mother and father are citizens of the United States. Gordo and a sibling went on to become lawyers, while another is a doctor and a teacher.
Gordo asserted that there is now no way to legalize. The desire for immigrant labor in numerous industries and the demonization of these very contributors are both part of this hypocritical system.
Pablo Alvarado, the executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and a resident of Pasadena, informed me that he and Gordo had disagreements over the years. However, he believes that the mayor has become more accepting of his immigrant identity as a result of the events of the past month.
As someone who has accompanied Gordo in protests and vigils, Alvarado said, “He’s stepping up to the moment and I’m very proud of what he’s doing.” Telling the tale of your origins is one thing, but facing the authorities behind these illegal ICE operations is quite another. He has, in my opinion, shown no fear.
On June 18, Gordo told me, he went to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles with state senator Sasha Rene Prez (D-Alhambra) and representative Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) to see how the arrestees were doing. Despite being refused access, Gordo met a devastated Pomona woman who was unable to give her husband his heart medication.
Gordo was given permission to enter with the woman after offering his legal skills. He said he later learned that the husband had been arrested during his lunch break on a landscaping job, had been in the country 22 years with no arrest record and was in the process of obtaining a green card.
Gordo claimed that a glass wall separated the husband and wife as soon as they arrived at the jail facility.
According to Gordo, she was sobbing and trembling. He was telling her it was all going to be okay. He was trying to grin while reassuring her.
There was a tiny gap in the partition. They couldn t fit their hands through it, but Gordo watched as the pair hooked their pinky fingers.
“I told you,” Gordo replied, and that was all she could manage. I told you not to go to work.
Steve Lopez at La Times
