A Valentine’s Day rally drew about 200 demonstrators to Springdale, where speakers decried the immigration arrest of Randy Cordova Flores and called for a review of the borough’s relationship with immigration authorities.
But while Cordova Flores’ supporters spoke passionately in his defense, one passing motorist stopped in the middle of Pittsburgh Street to express something other than love in his heart.
The demonstration, which took place along two blocks of Pittsburgh Street, was prompted by the detention of Cordova Flores, an immigrant from Peru who was taken into custody after a traffic stop on Feb. 10.
“Devastation is the word” for the impact of his arrest, said Amy Sarno, a Springdale resident who helped organize the event and is “a close personal friend” of Cordova Flores’ family.
“You fear because you really don’t know … where he’s going to go or if you will ever see him again,” she said.
Cordova Flores has family members who were naturalized citizens, Sarno said. The entire family, she said, is “living in fear, and they are no longer speaking publicly out of fear.” She said he is in the United States with a valid claim for asylum and documentation permitting him to work.
A criminal records search turned up no charges against him, and federal officials have not identified any such offense. Instead, federal immigration authorities have asserted that local police initially pulled over Flores for a traffic violation.
Cordova Flores “failed to report to his immigration proceedings as ordered by a judge,” said Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Jason Koontz. “He will now face consequences for violating our nation’s laws.”
Sarno and others in the community said they have been worried for immigrant neighbors since last fall, when they learned that Springdale signed off on a 287(g) agreement — which essentially deputizes local police to assist with immigration enforcement — with Immigration and Customs Enforcement last fall.
Springdale residents said the agreement had been struck without public discussion and should be terminated.
“We’ve been saying since it came out that this is not going to end well for anybody,” said Devon McCullough. “And we’ve seen this week somebody was pulled over for, what, not signaling a turn? And then sent to a detention center. That’s not arrestable. It doesn’t matter what your status was.”
“Let’s be real — this community is very white,” he added. “The amount of immigrants in this area is not high at all, [and] nobody has any complaints about them.”
Census data from 2020 suggests that less than 2 percent of Springdale’s population identifies as Hispanic or Latino in origin, and a similarly sized share of the population speaks a language other than English.
“We’re better than this,” McCullough said.
‘Love Trumps Hate’
Demonstrators from nearby communities, including Fox Chapel and O’Hara, bore signs saying they “stand with Randy.” And a large number of motorists — including several large trucks — passing the Springdale demonstration honked their horns in apparent support.
But at least one motorist apparently took issue with the message.
As speakers called for the release of Cordova Flores, the driver of a black sport-utility vehicle parked the vehicle in the street and confronted demonstrators while onlookers chanted “Go Away!” and “Love Trumps Hate!”
Video shot by WESA shortly after the altercation began shows the motorist — his car parked in the street with the driver’s side door open — arguing with demonstrators behind the car. As he walks back towards the driver’s side of the car, a demonstrator holding a wooden pole approaches the car and slams the door shut. The motorist and protester confront each other, though they do not appear to make physical contact. The motorist then shoves another protester who comes up behind him with a camera. He appears to shove and slap the man three times, and exchanges words with the crowd before climbing into his car as police arrive.
“Arrest him! Arrest him!” the crowd chanted.
Police instead directed the man to pull off on a nearby side street, where a Springdale officer interviewed him. The officer told him that police would review surveillance camera footage to determine whether charges should be filed against anyone involved.
“They have freedom of speech and so do you,” the officer, Garett Kimmell, told the man.
The man, who declined to provide his name, told reporters afterward that when he saw the protesters lining the street, “I just started hollering, ‘Trump! More ICE! More ICE!’
The man said “rapists” and “murderers” were “sucking up all our benefits and everything else. … They’re taking the jobs.”
Asked whether it made a difference that Cordorva Flores had not been accused of any such crimes, the man said, “Who cares? He shouldn’t be here, he’s here illegal[ly]. It’s a crime to cross that border.”
The man said he pulled over when a demonstrator “told me he was going to kill me.” The man added that he, too, has freedom of speech, and “When they start coming near my car … I have the right to get out and check my vehicle to see if anything was done with it.”
The man declined to answer further questions, and police allowed him to leave pending further investigation — though he could not get the engine of his vehicle to start despite repeated attempts.
One of the demonstrators offered a much different account, saying the motorist threatened the life of one of the demonstrators and then “put his vehicle in park and got out of the car.”
“That guy was purely the aggressor from everything I saw and experienced,” said William Loar of Shaler. “There was no need for that man to … get out and be that aggressive.”
Demonstrators appeared to put themselves between the motorist and those he was confronting, and Loar said the demonstrators were telling each other: “He’s not worth it.” Sarno, meanwhile, urged calm over the PA system. But Loar said the confrontation summed up the reason why it was important for people to make their voices heard.
“There’s a lot going on right now in this country that is very unfair and unjust,” he said. “We say liberty and justice for all — when did that stop meaning something?”
Outraged, but not surprised
At least locally, the debate over immigration has been sharpest in small towns and suburbs, with both sides weighing in. (A small group of pro-Trump supporters bearing an “I Stand with ICE” sign, for example, was seen Saturday afternoon near the entrance to South Park.)
Cordova Flores’ case has drawn attention from local elected officials alike. State Sen. Lindsey Williams, whose 38th Senate District includes Springdale, told the demonstrators that she “had many, many constituents reach out to me via phone, email, showing up in the office, scared for their neighbors and their family. And it really means a lot that you came out here … to stand and show love for your neighbor.”
Williams and others told WESA that while they were outraged by Cordova Flores’ detention, they weren’t surprised by it. For one thing, his arrest on Feb. 10 came roughly two weeks after that of Jose Flores in Oakmont, just across the Allegheny River and downstream of Springdale. Neither man was facing criminal charges.
“You see it in other parts of the state and other parts of the country,” said Williams. “And it’s sad that we’re seeing this increase in what looks like detainment of people who are actively pursuing asylum cases. It’s really concerning that these are the people being detained.”
She said legislation is being discussed to more tightly restrict the ability of local officials to forge partnerships with ICE, but she acknowledged such bills are “a heavy lift” in the Republican-controlled Senate, especially.
Other officials have also taken an interest in the matter. U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio issued a statement asserting, “We need answers to basic questions about the reason for his arrest and why our government is seeking to remove him from the country. I’ll keep fighting for answers and accountability.”
But the case of Jose Flores, who worked at a celebrated local bakery whose owner has dabbled in politics, has to date garnered more attention, with even U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick — who has largely supported Trump’s approach on the issue — saying publicly that he was “seeking an update” on the matter. Jose Flores was released last week with little explanation.
The ICE statement says Cordova Florez entered the country illegally in 2023 near Yuma, Arizona, but was allowed to remain in the U.S. by the Biden Administration. The policy at that time was to allow immigrants to remain while their claims for asylum were adjudicated. But that approach was the subject of litigation, and President Donald Trump reversed it last year.
Immigration experts say that under the Trump Administration, immigration authorities have dispensed with earlier efforts to prioritize immigrants who have committed criminal offenses since arriving: Instead, the agencies have sought to detain and deport even immigrants who have jobs and become established in local communities.
Controversy over that approach, and sometimes violent tactics seen on the streets of Minneapolis and other cities, have led to a partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security after every U.S. Senate Democrat — except Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman — rejected a bid to fund the agency last week. But as Fetterman pointed out at the time, ICE is flush with cash thanks to funding provided by Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” last year.