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Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo took a break on a warm day, wiped his forehead and pointed out a can of Folgers coffee in the corner of his office.
He spoke many times, and given the recent events, I found it worth repeating.
For years, Gordo’s parents were undocumented. At a young age, they crossed the border from Zacatecas, Mexico, settled in Pasadena and raised their families. Gordo’s father was a dishwasher cook. His mother was a tailor at a factory across from the city hall. The family lived in a renovated garage.
“Under my parents’ bed there was a coffee can from Folgers, including cash, a list of names and phone numbers, and a copy of my birth certificate and identification,” said Gordo, who described as the oldest child and a latchkey child.
“If my parents didn’t get home, I would have taken it and knocked on my neighbor’s house,” Gordo said.
His office cans are not original. It’s a replica and a reminder.
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo is the son of immigrant parents.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The federal attack in Southern California has upset families and neighbours. People fear leaving their homes after being arrested in car washes, supply centres, restaurants, clothing districts and street vending sites.
Gordo knows how they feel.
“We lived in fear, and that’s what’s so uncomfortable about this and frankly painful,” he said.
In Pasadena, it is not clear whether the sweeps are being conducted by legal federal agents or vigilantes, Gordo said. Their cars are not marked. Their faces are shielded. Their uniforms do not answer questions.
Recently, a man left a Pasadena vehicle and pointed his gun at a pedestrian, before the emergency lights flashed. Several men were detained at the bus stop, some of whom are on their way to work at the construction site for the post-fire reconstruction in Altadena, Gordo said.
And the city cancelled several swimming and other recreation programs on Saturday amid fears of an increase in federal enforcement activities. Gordo told the Times that a masked man with a gun and a vest chased several men at Villa Park.
“They are creating unstable and dangerous situations,” Gordo told me. He said he was afraid that a bullet would fly through the neighborhood or that police would arrive at the scene and not know what it was.
Gorde said that even people with legal status are wary, as some of the attacks appear to be arbitrary and indiscriminate. As my colleague Rachel Ulanga reported, the majority of people arrested in Southern California during the first 10 days of June had no criminal history despite their oaths to Reel in the “worst and worst.”
“I have a passport,” Gordo said.
Pasadena mayor, Pasadena mayor, Victor Gold Pasadena City Hall.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
“Overreach blames the whole of our society. Whether you look or hear someone like an immigrant, or in the eyes of others, you are automatically considered an outsider, which is morally and legally wrong.”
Gorde’s position on immigration enforcement has not always been straightforward, as did immigration rights advocates. In 2017, La Progressive said Gordo’s Coffee Can Story was persuasive, but accused the then-countymen of proposing a city ordinance that banned police contact with immigration authorities.
The article said Gordo was opposed to local police “in contact with the ice” but at one point “supported the exception to the bad guys.”
Gordo ultimately voted in favor of the ordinance. The vast majority of undocumented immigrants are here to work hard and create opportunities for their families, he said. Same as his family. But he added that “bad actors” need results. It’s not an issue of immigration, it’s a question of criminal justice.
“If the federal government or our own police believes that someone has violated the law, they should address that issue,” Gordo said. “But they should do that with respect for the US constitution and what the federal government is doing now lacks a legitimate process.”
Missing is also a conversation about immigration reform that will provide a pathway to address the needs of employers and contribute even greater things to immigration.
He recalled that at age 10, his family temporarily returned to Mexico as part of the process of establishing legal status in the United States, which became possible under the Carter administration. His father is a US citizen, as is his late mother. Gordo and his brother became lawyers. The other is a doctor and the other is an educator.
Now, Gorde said, there is no way to legalization. This hypocrisy system is alone in the demand for migrant labor in many industries, along with the demonization of these very contributors.
Pablo Alvarado, a Pasadena resident and executive director of the National Day Worker Organization Network, said he has been different from Gordo over the years. However, he believes that events from last month have encouraged the mayor to accept his immigrant identity more fully.
“He was up until that moment and I’m extremely proud of what he’s doing,” said Alvarado, who joined Gordo at Gardo and the demonstrations. “It’s one thing to tell you where you came from and… to tell you another thing to stand up to the forces behind these illegal ice manipulations. …I think he was fearless.”
Gordo visited the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on June 18th to visit Rep. Judy Chew (D. Monterry Park) and state Sen. Sasha Rene Perez (D. Alhambra) to check on arrests. They were denied entry, but Gordo meets a distraught woman from Pomona, who is not permitted to deliver heart medicine to her husband.
Gordo served as a lawyer and was allowed to enter along with the woman. He later said he learned that his husband was arrested during lunch break at a landscaping job, staying for 22 years without arrest records and being in the process of getting a green card.
Gordo said the husband and wife were separated by a glass partition when he and the woman entered the detention center.
“She was shaking with tears,” Gordo said. “He told her it was all fine. He was trying to comfort her and smile.”
The partition had a small opening. They couldn’t get through it, but Gordo saw the pair hook the fingers of their pinky fingers.
“The only thing she can call is, ‘I told you,’ Gordo said. “I told you not to go to work.”
steve.lopez@latimes.com
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