Councilmember Cole to Host Forum Addressing ICE Raids and Community Impact

Councilmember Rick Cole will host a public forum Tuesday, July 22, to address community concerns about recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Pasadena. Titled “ICE Raids and Response,” the event will feature a panel of elected officials, attorneys and activists discussing how residents and institutions can respond to the raids’ impact on families, schools, businesses and neighborhoods.

Recent enforcement actions — described by witnesses as involving heavily armed, masked ICE agents in unmarked cars — have sparked confusion, fear, and outrage.

Last month, day laborers were taken into custody by ICE while waiting at a bus stop at Los Robles Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard. The raids are part of a broader regional campaign that has included seizing a four-year-old undergoing cancer treatment and allegedly beating the father of three U.S. Marines — one veteran and two active-duty.

A federal lawsuit seeking to halt the tactics was filed earlier this month by public interest law organizations, naming the Pasadena day laborers as lead plaintiffs.

Pasadena’s City Council unanimously voted last week to join the lawsuit, along with the City and County of Los Angeles and several other jurisdictions, including Montebello, Monterey Park, Culver City and Santa Monica. A judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday, which was appealed over the weekend by the Trump administration.

Panelists will include Vice Mayor Jess Rivas; Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Labor Organizing Network; Cal Soto, attorney and Workers Rights Director at NDLON; and Leslie Chang, campaign coordinator at DSA-LA.

“Reasonable people can disagree about Federal immigration policies,” Cole commented. “There is room for dialogue on a humane path forward. What is unacceptable are the dangerous and reckless tactics currently being used by ICE to spread fear and meet arbitrary quotas by grabbing people from our streets because they fit a visual profile.”

Due to summer heat, Cole’s monthly issue forum will not be held at its usual Jefferson School location. Instead, it will take place at Thurgood Marshall Secondary School, 990 N. Allen Avenue, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 22.

For more information, contact District Two Liaison Megheti DerBoghossian at (626) 744-4742 or mderboghossian@cityofpasadena.net.