Articles for J. Dale Shoemaker

Aug 8

2025

ICE separates parents, 2-year-old child

Carlos Molina Manzaneda, Rebeca Ferreira Castillo and their child, Ines. Photo provided. On a late July morning, immigration authorities in Western New York targeted the Fredonia Walmart, ultimately detaining a husband and wife. The action separated the parents from Ines, their two-year-old child. For two weeks now, the toddler has cried nightly, her father said, and has at times refused to eat, not understanding why her parents haven’t come home. A member of the couple’s extended family is caring for the child, who was born in Buffalo in 2023. “It’s like a piece of you is ripped out, like a[...]

Posted 2 days ago

Aug 7

2025

City contractor violates law, is awarded new work anyway

Over the span of two days in July, the City of Buffalo issued a fine to its primary street paving contractor for violating local law, then awarded the firm three new contracts worth millions. On July 7, according to a letter written by former Department of Public Works Commissioner Nathan Marton, the city issued D&H Paving a $22,214 fine for failing to hire and pay apprentices appropriately on a 2022 paving contract. The following day, July 8, the Common Council voted unanimously on a slate of three paving contracts, all awarded to D&H Paving because the firm was the lowest[...]

Posted 3 days ago

Jul 30

2025

Another bad review for ICE’s Batavia detention center

For a third time in the past two years, federal inspectors have found that guards at the local ICE detention center in Batavia improperly used force against the immigrants held there. Investigative Post in February reported on two recent federal audits that found incidents where officers were quick to use pepper spray and manhandle detainees instead of deescalating tense situations. Now, a June report from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found two additional instances where guards violated the use-of-force policy against detainees. On one occasion, a detainee was locked in his cell, handcuffed. Officers arrived to remove the[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Jul 24

2025

A pay raise already for Byron Brown at OTB

On the job less than a year, Byron Brown has already secured himself a raise at the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. Brown, hired as new president and CEO last fall, won a 3 percent raise Thursday, bringing his total pay to $303,850. That’s ahead of a contractual $10,000 raise scheduled to take effect in January, which will carry Brown’s total pay to nearly $314,000. Five other corporation officials were also granted 3 percent raises by a unanimous vote of OTB’s board. The raise Thursday solidifies Brown as the highest paid OTB leader across New York. The next-highest paid OTB[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Jul 17

2025

Latinos, roofers are prime ICE targets in WNY

An ICE raid took place on Crescent Avenue in May. Photo submitted. Rather than targeting the “worst of the worst,” as the Trump administration claims, ICE agents in Western New York are primarily arresting immigrants with no criminal history. Data shows that more than three-quarters of migrants arrested in Western New York since President Trump took office have no criminal record. To date, most of the 335 detainees are from Latin American counties, a significant percentage of them roofers and others in the construction field. By contrast, ICE arrested a total of 84 in Western New York all of last[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Jul 16

2025

ICE deception on immigrant detentions

On X, ICE has used these words to describe detainees who were already incarcerated. Graphic by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. Since Donald Trump took office in January, the Buffalo ICE office has issued a steady drumbeat of press releases and social media posts purporting to show that its agents are taking dangerous criminals “off the streets.” But in reality, more than half of the immigrants ICE Buffalo has publicized since Trump’s inauguration were already in state or federal prison. Following a White House-issued quota, ICE data shows that arrests in the region have skyrocketed from 83 last year to 335 through the[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Jul 8

2025

Lawsuit seeks environmental review of STAMP data center

Chief Roger Hill, a Tonawanda Seneca Nation leader, looks out to Plug Power site. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Tonawanda Seneca Nation is again suing the builders of the Genesee County STAMP industrial park, arguing in a lawsuit filed last week that the industrial development agency failed to conduct a proper environmental review for a large data center. The lawsuit asks a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to halt any prep work being done for the data center, and eventually to rule that additional environmental reviews are needed before the project can proceed. The Nation and the Sierra[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Jul 3

2025

Report: OTB’s No. 2 helped himself to freebies

An internal review at Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. has found a senior executive spent more than $27,000 of the agency’s money on food and drinks for himself, his friends and other guests between 2021 and 2024. The executive in question, Chief Operating Officer Scott Kiedrowski, was the right-hand man of former CEO Henry Wojtaszek, who he succeeded a decade ago as chairman of the Niagara County Republican Party. Byron Brown kept Kiedrowski on when he took over as CEO in October and gave him a $17,000 raise, bringing his pay to $190,000. Kiedrowski is also the subject of[...]

Posted 1 month ago