For the second straight council meeting, Springdale Borough officials stayed mum about the police department’s agreement to cooperate with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The cooperation agreement with ICE resulted in the arrest of a Peru-born resident, Randy Cordova-Flores, more than a month ago.
Like February’s council meeting, council did not comment on the 287(g) agreement Springdale signed last year without a vote. Nor did it discuss the detainment of Cordova-Flores, calling it an “active investigation.”
After the meeting, Councilman Dan Copeland said repealing or voting on the agreement “hasn’t been discussed” by council.
Still, several speakers pushed for exactly that.
Danny Rosenmund, a Springdale resident, said the community should have been informed of the agreement before it was signed and asked council to reprimand Police Chief Derek Dayoub.
“I’m here to tell you that the right way to do this is to cancel the existing agreement and hold a public discussion that we all deserve,” he said.
Matt Lang, a resident and frequent speaker, asked council to clarify whether the small borough faced any issues resulting from illegal immigration or an uptick in crime that would necessitate such an agreement.
Before the meeting, about two dozen residents braved the frigid weather to protest the agreement and Cordova-Flores’ detainment. The rally was the first event organized by the newly organized Allegheny Valley chapter of Indivisible, a progressive organization that maintains branches throughout the nation.
Judah Marroquin, a Springdale Township resident, is the “unofficial leader” of the group.
In addition to Marroquin and several community members, Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam and Jaime Martinez, founder of local ICE monitoring group Frontline Dignity, took to the megaphone.
Martinez told the crowd that Allegheny County Council’s recent decision to bar cooperation with federal immigration agencies was a step in the right direction, but there was still work to do.
“Every single municipality, every single borough, every single township needs to take a stand because this is the moral issue of our time,” Martinez said.
Amy Sarno, an Allegheny Valley School Board member and friend of the Cordova family, read a statement from Cordova-Flores’ sister, Paulette Cordova.
In the statement, Paulette said her family was “heartbroken” and insisted her brother had complied with the requirements of his asylum case.
“No one who truly knows us could say we are bad people,” the statement said.
Cordova-Flores, 36, was detained by ICE agents Feb. 10 after Springdale Police pulled him over near his home for allegedly failing to use a turn signal.
After initially being held in Northern Regional Correctional Facility and Jail near Moundsville, W.Va., Cordova-Flores remains one of hundreds of detainees at Moshannon in Clearfield County, ICE’s largest holding facility in the Northeast.
ICE spokesman Jason Koontz said in a statement Cordova-Flores “failed to report to his immigration proceedings as ordered by a judge.”
Border Patrol agents encountered Cordova-Flores in 2023 near Yuma, Ariz., after he “unlawfully entered the United States during the Biden Administration’s catch and release program,” the statement said.
Cordova-Flores has a pending asylum status case. He has been in the United States for nearly three years, his sister, Paulette Cordova, said. He works as a landscaper but also took jobs as a food delivery driver during winter months, she said.
He has a Real ID, a Social Security card and current work permit, according to Paulette Cordova. A search of state and federal court dockets showed no past or pending criminal charges against him.
A lawyer representing the family filed a habeas corpus petition on Cordova-Flores’ behalf earlier this month in an effort to grant him a potential bond hearing ahead of future asylum proceedings.
Dayoub, the police chief, declined a TribLive request for comment.