Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo took a break on a heat day, wiped his forehead and identified the Folgers espresso can within the nook of his workplace.
He’s informed the story many instances, however felt it was price repeating, given current occasions.
For years, Gordo’s dad and mom have been undocumented. They crossed the border from Zacatecas, Mexico, when he was a younger baby, settled in Pasadena and raised their household. Gordo’s father was a dishwasher and cook dinner; his mom was a seamstress in a manufacturing unit that was once throughout from Metropolis Corridor. The household lived in a transformed storage.
“Below my dad and mom’ mattress was a Folgers espresso can, and in that may was money, a listing of names and telephone numbers, copies of start certificates and identification playing cards,” mentioned Gordo, who was the oldest baby and describes himself as a latchkey child.
“If my dad and mom didn’t come house, I used to be to take that may and go knock on the neighbor’s home” and get assist, Gordo mentioned.
The can in his workplace isn’t the unique. It’s a reproduction, and a reminder.
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo is the son of immigrant dad and mom.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)
With federal raids throughout Southern California, households and neighborhoods have been reeling. Folks have been afraid to depart the home following arrests at automotive washes, constructing provide facilities, eating places, the Garment District and avenue merchandising places.
Gordo is aware of how they really feel.
“We lived in concern, and that’s what’s so offensive about this, and painful, frankly,” he mentioned.
In Pasadena, Gordo mentioned, it hasn’t been clear whether or not the sweeps are being performed by legit federal brokers or vigilantes. Their vehicles are unmarked. Their faces are shielded. Their uniforms don’t reply any questions.
In current days, a person exited a car in Pasadena and pointed a gun at pedestrians earlier than dashing away, emergency lights flashing. At a bus cease, a number of males have been detained, a few of whom have been on their method to work on development websites within the post-fire rebuilding of Altadena, in keeping with Gordo.
And the town canceled some swimming and different leisure applications Saturday amid fears of elevated federal enforcement exercise. Gordo informed The Instances that masked males with weapons and vests had chased a number of males at Villa Parke.
“They’re creating risky, harmful conditions,” Gordo informed me, saying he fears that bullets will fly by way of neighborhoods, or that police will arrive on scene and never know what’s what or who’s who.
Even folks with authorized standing are cautious, Gordo mentioned, as a result of a few of the raids look like arbitrary and indiscriminate. As my colleague Rachel Uranga reported, the majority of these arrested within the first 10 days of June in Southern California had no legal data, regardless of Trump’s vow to reel in “the worst of the worst.”
“I’m carrying my passport with me,” Gordo mentioned.
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo outdoors Metropolis Corridor in Pasadena.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)
“The overreach is stigmatizing a complete swath of our society. Whether or not you look or sound like an immigrant, within the eyes of others, you’re mechanically thought of an outsider, and that’s morally and legally unsuitable.”
Gordo’s positions on immigration enforcement haven’t at all times gotten straight As from immigrant rights advocates. In 2017, L.A. Progressive mentioned Gordo’s espresso can story was compelling, however accused the then-councilman of waffling on a proposed metropolis ordinance prohibiting police contacts with immigration authorities.
The article mentioned Gordo was against native police “having contacts with ICE,” however mentioned on one event that he “favored an exception for unhealthy guys.”
Gordo in the end voted in favor of that ordinance, which handed unanimously, and informed me he feels now as he did then. The overwhelming majority of undocumented immigrants are right here to work exhausting and create alternatives for his or her households, he mentioned. Similar as his household. However there need to be penalties for “unhealthy actors,” he added, and that’s a legal justice matter, not an immigration situation.
“If the federal authorities or our personal police imagine there may be somebody who has violated the legislation, they need to handle that situation,” Gordo mentioned. “However they need to do it respecting the Structure of america, and what the federal authorities is doing now’s lacking due course of.”
Additionally lacking, says Gordo, is any dialog about immigration reform that might serve the wants of employers and provides immigrants a pathway to creating even larger contributions.
He recalled that when he was about 10, his household moved again to Mexico briefly as a part of the method of building authorized standing within the U.S., which was made potential underneath the Carter administration. His father is a U.S. citizen, as was his late mom. Gordo and a sibling grew to become attorneys; one other is a health care provider and yet one more is an educator.
Now, mentioned Gordo, there’s no path to legalization. There’s simply this hypocritical system in which there’s demand for immigrant labor in lots of industries, together with demonization of those very contributors.
Pablo Alvarado, a Pasadena resident and government director of the Nationwide Day Laborer Organizing Community, informed me he’s had variations with Gordo over time. However he thinks the occasions of the final month have prompted the mayor to extra absolutely embrace his immigrant id.
“He’s stepping up-to-the-minute and I’m very pleased with what he’s doing,” mentioned Alvarado, who has joined Gordo at vigils and demonstrations. “It’s one factor to inform the story of the place you got here from, and one other factor to … confront the powers … behind these illegal ICE operations. … I feel he’s been fearless.”
Gordo informed me he visited the Metropolitan Detention Heart in downtown Los Angeles on June 18, with Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra), to test on arrestees. They have been denied entry, however Gordo met a distraught lady from Pomona who was not being allowed to ship coronary heart remedy to her husband.
Gordo provided his providers as an legal professional and was allowed entry together with the lady. He mentioned he later discovered that the husband had been arrested throughout his lunch break on a landscaping job, had been within the nation 22 years with no arrest report and was within the strategy of acquiring a inexperienced card.
Gordo mentioned that when he and the lady entered the detention middle, the husband and spouse have been separated by a glass partition.
“She was crying and shaking,” Gordo mentioned. “He was telling her it was all going to be okay. He was comforting her, and attempting to smile.”
The partition had a small opening. They couldn’t match their arms by way of it, however Gordo watched as the pair hooked their pinky fingers.
“All she may muster was, ‘I informed you,’” Gordo mentioned. “‘I informed you to not go to work.’”
steve.lopez@latimes.com
