Jan 16
2026
Buffalo mayor to ban city cooperation with ICE, others
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Mayor Sean Ryan addresses community groups Friday. Photo via PPG.
Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan announced Friday that his administration is drafting an executive order that will prohibit the Buffalo police and other city departments from working with federal immigration agencies.
The order, he said, would ensure “no apparatus of city government interacts in any way with federal immigration.”
“And that’s going to be from building inspectors, to garbage collectors to police officers,” he said.
“What we don’t want is any chilling effect,” Ryan told civic and advocacy groups assembled at the Buffalo State University Alumni Visitor Center. “We don’t want people not coming to City Hall to avail themselves of services because they’re afraid that somehow their visit … is going to yield a phone call to immigration officials.”
Ryan did not give a timeline for signing the executive order, saying only that it would come “soon.”
Other cities, including Rochester and New York City, have laws in place that prohibit city employees from inquiring about a person’s immigration status and ban police from enforcing federal immigration law.
The mayor’s announcement follows Gov. Kathy Hochul’s endorsement Tuesday of two pieces of immigration-related legislation, part of her State of the State address.
One proposed law would allow New York residents to bring state-level civil lawsuits against federal immigration agents who they believe violate their constitutional rights. The second would ban immigration agents from schools, doctor offices, daycare centers and houses of worship unless they have a judicial warrant.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomHochul has yet to endorse the New York For All Act, which would provide a statewide ban on local law enforcement and other municipal employees from inquiring about a person’s immigration status or sharing information about their status with federal agents. New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins endorsed that bill earlier this month.
At Friday’s event — the annual legislative and policy briefing hosted by Partnership for the Public Good — advocates from organizations including Showing Up for Racial Justice, the New York Immigration Coalition, and Justice for Migrant Families voiced support for New York For All and Ryan’s proposed executive order.
“An executive order of non-collusion will send a powerful and needed message of solidarity and hope to those who are now living in shock and fear,” said SURJ Buffalo member Allie Doran. “Stop waiting upon the state, stop hoping police will merely withstand the pressure to comply. We must take responsibility for our own city.”
Jennifer Connor, executive director of Justice for Migrant Families, urged the Ryan administration to implement the proposed executive order.
“As a city, we can ensure that our city resources are not being used to enforce a violent federal agenda against immigrants,” she said. “We can do it and we should do it.”
Investigative Post reported last month that a handful of local agencies, including the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and Cheektowaga Police Department frequently turn detained migrants over to border agents. Those agents then send migrants to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Residents in Cheektowaga this week protested that cooperation at a town council meeting, calling for a prohibition on the police force from working with federal immigration agencies.
Ryan on Friday said city police would still enforce criminal law against migrants but that such enforcement would not result in a call to federal immigration authorities.
“If there’s any criminal activity, regardless of someone’s immigration status, law enforcement gets involved, and that’s gonna continue,” he added. “But we’re going to make sure that no apparatus of the City of Buffalo’s government is working with Homeland Security and ICE to harass people.”
Ryan declined to say that his executive order constituted a “sanctuary city” policy, saying “I don’t know what those words mean.”
He noted that Buffalo has grown in population and tax base due to refugees and immigrants settling in the city.
“We are a city with [fewer] vacant houses and [fewer] vacant storefronts, for one prime reason. We have new Americans moving into the city of Buffalo,” he said. “Stopping immigrants from coming into Buffalo is bad for our economy.”
