Peru native Randy Cordova-Flores was driving near the corner of Lincoln and James streets in Springdale on Tuesday when local police pulled him over, according to his sister, Paulette Cordova.
Soon after, he was in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
In what appears to be the first instance of Springdale police actively cooperating with ICE in the arrest of a borough resident, Cordova-Flores, 36, was taken into ICE custody after the traffic stop.
He was transported to the ICE field office on Pittsburgh’s South Side. It was not known if he was transferred to another immigration facility. His status on the ICE detainee website Tuesday merely listed him as “in custody.”
Springdale is one of two police departments in Allegheny County that maintains a 287(g) agreement with ICE, which it discreetly signed last November. The agreement gives local officers limited immigration enforcement powers and allows them to cooperate with ICE when they encounter non-citizens during normal police operations.
Hazy details
There has been no official comment on Cordova-Flores’ arrest. What information is available comes from Paulette Cordova, who spoke with her brother by phone will he was in the South Side ICE facility.
Springdale Police did not respond to multiple TribLive phone calls, nor did they answer their door when a reporter and photographer went to the borough police station Tuesday afternoon.
ICE officials also did not respond to a TribLive request for comment.
A Springdale officer later told Paulette, she said, that Cordova-Flores was pulled over for failing to use a turn signal. When officers did a computer check of his name at the traffic stop and realized his status as an immigrant, they informed ICE agents of his presence, Paulette said the officer told her.
But Paulette says that doesn’t match what her brother told her when he called her from ICE’s offices Tuesday afternoon. Cordova-Flores told Paulette that ICE agents already were present and waiting at the scene of the traffic stop.
“They’re hunting us,” said Paulette, a naturalized American citizen.
Cordova-Flores has a pending asylum status case. He has been in the United States for nearly three years, Paulette said. He works as a landscaper, but also took jobs as a food delivery driver during winter months, she said.
Cordova-Flores has a Real ID, Social Security card and a current work permit, according to Paulette. A search of state and federal court dockets showed no past or pending criminal charges against him.
Paulette initially heard from Cordova-Flores early Tuesday when he called from the Springdale police station, saying he had been picked up by police.
Paulette arrived at the station with her fiancé, Nick DeFazio and Tony, Robin and Amy Sarno, longtime family friends and lifelong Springdale residents.
Amy Sarno said she saw two people at the police station wearing green vests who appeared to be ICE agents.
A Springdale officer asked the group if they preferred to step into a conference room as they made calls rather than remain outside, Sarno said. Soon after, the officer told them Cordova-Flores had been taken by agents to ICE’s South Side offices.
Paulette said she thinks the group was led into the conference room so they would not see Cordova-Flores being led away.
“My brother was thinking maybe nobody was there, but we were there,” she said.
A TribLive reporter was present when Paulette arrived later at ICE’s offices to inquire about her brother. She was told she could not see him and that he would be transferred to another facility soon.
ICE records did not state Randy’s location as of Tuesday afternoon, simply listing him as “in custody.”
Many ICE detainees in the area have been transported to Northern Regional Correctional Facility and Jail near Moundsville, W.Va., or Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center in Clearfield County. Paulette said her brother informed her he would be taken to Moshannon, one of the largest ICE processing facilities on the East Coast.
Terrified family
Cordova-Flores comes from a large extended family in the borough that includes his 11-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter, who are students in the Allegheny Valley School District, where Amy Sarno is a school board member.
The family dynamics seem to be well known by ICE, according to Paulette.
In a conversation with her from ICE’s South Side offices Tuesday, Cordova-Flores said agents had shown him pictures of other family members and told him their addresses.
The situation has left Paulette’s family “terrified,” she said.
At this point, she said, she expects the family to stay home from school and work.
Trained as a lawyer in Peru, Paulette said she’s now looking for an American immigration lawyer to take her brother’s case.
Cordova-Flores’s detainment is the latest in a series of immigration arrests in the region.
In Oakmont, resident Jose Flores was recently picked up by ICE agents as he prepared to take his 8-year-old daughter to school. Flores, a native of Nicaragua was released from ICE custody on Saturday, though his immigration case remains ongoing.
Soon after, Maklim Gomez Escalante was detained in Brentwood and remains in federal custody.
Last week, Scott Township resident Vishavdeep Singh was detained by ICE in Plum after, police say, he attempted to escape from a court hearing.
A friend of the Cordova family, Springdale resident Dani Jameson, started an online fundraiser for the family’s legal fees Tuesday.
Jameson said a group of local residents is planning to protest Randy’s detainment on Saturday at the intersection of Pittsburgh and School streets in Springdale.