Pasadena City Council Unanimously Approves Sweeping Immigration Enforcement Protection Resolution

[Updated]   The City Council on Monday night unanimously approved direction to staff to return at a future City Council meeting with information and staff’s recommendations on how best to implement the 13 proposed actions detailed in a document prepared and submitted by Councilmember Rick Cole and Mayor Victor Gordo that addresses immigration enforcement.

The agendized item was a review of responses by other Local Law Enforcement Jurisdictions to interactions with Federal Immigration Agents engaged in immigration enforcement.  The document submitted by the Mayor and Councilmember was a rough draft and will be basis for the work of staff when the item comes back.

The 8-0 approval came after a presentation by Deputy City Manager Alex Soto comparing Pasadena’s existing policies to measures recently adopted in Chicago, Los Angeles and LA County, followed by emotional public testimony from residents and legal observers who described encounters with federal agents in Pasadena neighborhoods since June 2025.

The resolution, drafted by Councilmember Rick Cole in coordination with Mayor Victor Gordo, directs city staff to evaluate a ban on any use of city property by civil immigration enforcement.

An earlier draft had limited the restriction to use as “a staging area, processing location or operations base,” but Gordo corrected the language on the floor to broaden it, and Cole confirmed the narrower phrasing had been a typo.

The resolution also calls for the city manager, city attorney and police chief to develop formal protocols governing how Pasadena police officers interact with federal immigration agents — something the city’s agenda report acknowledged had not previously been established.

Additional provisions direct staff to develop contractor disclosure requirements for businesses bidding on city work, with Cole saying the council should also explore going beyond disclosure to consider restrictions on who the city contracts with. The resolution also directs staff to meet with organizations engaged in lawful monitoring of enforcement activity to explore regular liaison and communication.

The resolution mirrors and in some cases goes beyond executive directives signed by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Chicago’s Executive Order 2025-8 prohibited the use of city-owned parking lots, vacant lots and garages for immigration enforcement staging. LA’s Directive 17, signed Feb. 10, extended those restrictions to any city-owned or controlled property and added requirements that LAPD officers respond to and record all immigration enforcement actions, verify the identity of supervisory agents on body-worn camera and report alleged federal misconduct monthly to the Board of Police Commissioners and the Office of the Mayor. Directive 17 also directed the study of impact fees on private property owners who allow their property to be used for immigration enforcement and required city contractors to disclose agreements with the Department of Homeland Security.

Soto told the council that federal immigration enforcement in the Los Angeles region has escalated dramatically since June 2025, with high-profile operations in neighborhoods, near workplaces and schools, and in public spaces.

The city’s written agenda report noted that President Trump signed H.R. 1 on July 4, 2025, allocating $45 billion for new immigration detention centers and nearly $30 billion for ICE enforcement and deportation operations, nearly tripling ICE’s budget.

Flock Cameras Draw Sharp Scrutiny

The city’s contract with Flock, a company that manufactures automated license plate reader cameras, emerged as a flashpoint during the discussion.

Council Member Tyron Hampton pressed staff on whether the city’s existing confidentiality standards — which restrict city employees from disclosing residents’ personal information — should preclude the Flock contract, citing reports that the company has shared data with federal immigration authorities.

“If Flock is using our data illegally knowing that we have a policy in place … they’re already saying that they’re doing this,” Hampton said. “Every report I’ve read basically is saying that Flock is doing this.”

Police Chief Gene Harris has confirmed the city has a contractual agreement with Flock and said the department has conducted an “exhaustive review” and is “confident” that no Pasadena data has been improperly shared. Harris committed to delivering a full report to the Public Safety Committee by its next meeting, the third Wednesday of March.

Vice Mayor Jess Rivas, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said she had raised the issue with the chief weeks earlier and was encouraged by his initial assessment but called for “a broader public and transparent conversation on how we know that.”

Public Testimony Describes ICE Activity in Pasadena

Several residents and legal observers described specific encounters with federal immigration agents in Pasadena during public comment.

One District 3 resident said legal observers have documented ICE agents “consistently positioning themselves near the Pasadena Police Department for safety and protection during and after operations” since summer 2025. She cited incidents on June 18 and June 28 of last year and an Aug. 15 operation near the Home Depot in East Pasadena where she said police “formed a perimeter” around observers while ICE and Border Patrol agents “moved freely.”

Jennifer Collins described a Jan. 7 incident in which she said Pasadena police arrested legal observer Jose Madera while ICE operated in the city, calling the arrest “an embarrassing demonstration of collusion with ICE” and demanding the charges be “dismissed permanently.”

Sandra Garcia told the council her family’s business was raided on June 23, 2025, and that she was personally threatened by an agent who told her “to be quiet before he sends me back to my country.”

Sharon Nichols, a teacher in LAUSD and Northwest Pasadena resident, said she witnessed masked men kidnap three customers at the Pasadena Home Depot in September 2025 with “no warrants, no due process.”

Council Members Voice Support, Push for Action

Councilmembers expressed broad support for the resolution while pressing for urgency and enforcement.

“Words are not enough,” Hampton said, echoing the first public commenter of the night. “We have to let our residents know that we’re doing all we can to continue to protect them.”

Councilmember Justin Jones asked about the status of $100,000 the council previously allocated to support communities affected by immigration enforcement. City Manager Miguel Márquez said the funds are now being administered through the California Community Foundation.

Márquez said the city is working with the California Community Foundation to raise additional money beyond the initial $100,000, noting that the cities of Long Beach and Pomona have undertaken similar efforts with the foundation.

Vice Mayor Rivas expressed her personal frustration with the narrow legal space available to local government.

“We can’t obstruct the federal government from doing their job of enforcing federal immigration laws,” she said. “Between those two things, there’s a very narrow space for us to act.” But she urged the council to push boundaries: “We really should be doing as much as we can and forcing and pushing the boundaries because as everyone has made clear, our residents’ lives are on the line here.”

Councilmember Steve Madison, who said he spent nine years at the U.S. Department of Justice, called federal immigration enforcement “shameful and illegal” and described the treatment of residents by federal agents as “appalling,” but cautioned that both police and legal observers could benefit from training to avoid dangerous confrontations. He called for joint training opportunities in partnership with nonprofits and public interest law firms.

Cole, in making the motion, read into the record a statement from an attorney who resigned from ICE, describing how the agency had dismantled 240 hours of training classes covering the Constitution, firearms, use of force and the limits of officers’ authority.

“New cadets are graduating from the academy despite widespread concerns among training staff that even in the final days of training, the cadets cannot demonstrate a solid grasp of the tactics the law required to perform their jobs,” Cole quoted.

Councilmember Jason Lyon urged staff to “move with expedience,” saying the city is “in the middle of an evolving crisis” and that implementation should be “a matter of weeks, not a matter of months.”

Cole said item 12 of his proposal — which drew criticism from some public commenters who saw it as an attempt to regulate legal observers — was intended to open dialogue, not dictate outcomes.

“It’s not to dictate what comes after, it’s to create the context” for regular communication between police and community representatives, he said.

Councilmember Gene Masuda thanked Soto for the presentation and voiced his support, saying the city’s commitment to trust, mutual respect and open communication with residents is “essential to the preservation of public safety and the effective delivery of services.”

Gordo, who came to the United States as an immigrant and became a naturalized citizen, shared a personal reflection near the close of debate. He recalled being called a “wetback” and “anchor baby” when he was first elected to the council in 2001 and said the federal government’s current posture is “intended to set a tone that is divisive, that separates us, that pits our police officers and even members of this council and our community against one another.”

“We can’t allow someone else to tear that apart,” Gordo said. “We need to set that tone.”