Articles for J. Dale Shoemaker

Feb 11

2026

Cheektowaga kicks the can on immigration policy

The Cheektowaga Town Board meets Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. Cheektowaga lawmakers on Tuesday tabled a resolution that would restrict town police from collaborating with federal immigration agencies, a practice that funneled more than 20 migrants into ICE custody last year. As written, the resolution would mandate officers “not enforce civil immigration status, except where required by a judicial warrant, court order, or verified criminal warrant.” It would further restrict the town from using “personnel, resources, facilities, equipment, or information for the purpose of assisting in civil immigration enforcement,” and specifically “enforcement actions initiated or requested[...]

Posted 4 days ago

Feb 4

2026

Data center wants subsidies of $6.4 million per job

The developers of the STAMP industrial park in Genesee County are dangling one of the biggest subsidy packages in state history in an effort to land a data center as a tenant. The industrial development agency for Genesee County has proposed $801 million in sales and mortgage tax breaks for Stream Data Centers in exchange for the creation of 125 jobs. That works out to $6.4 million per job. By contrast, the $959 million in state funding for Tesla’s plant in South Buffalo worked out to $586,000 per job. The $6.6 billion in subsidies granted to Micron’s planned chip-fab in[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Feb 2

2026

ICE frees UB scientist arrested at Peace Bridge

Huseynov reports on his return home in a Jan. 31 video posted to his Facebook page. Image from the video. Shovgi Huseynov, the University at Buffalo neuroscientist who was arrested by border agents after making a wrong turn onto the Peace Bridge, has been freed from ICE detention. He was back home with his family in Buffalo as of Saturday, according to a video he posted to his Facebook page. “I want to thank each and every one of you for being concerned and curious about me these past few days, it means a lot,” he said in the video.[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Jan 30

2026

Genesee IDA has ‘conflict of interest’ in data center

A rendering of the proposed data center. Image via GCEDC. The Genesee County industrial development agency will once again lead the environmental review of a controversial data center proposal despite state officials, local lawmakers and Tonawanda Seneca Nation leaders raising concerns about the agency’s potential conflict of interest. They and other critics argue the IDA, which is building the 1,250-acre STAMP industrial park in rural Genesee County, stands to benefit financially from the data center project. Should the agency’s board of directors approve the project, including issuing an environmental clearance, the IDA could earn between $76 million and $126 million[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Jan 29

2026

ICE now targeting Afghans, rule followers

250 Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo has become a site of ICE arrests. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. In recent months, two new patterns have emerged involving ICE arrests across Western New York. First, federal immigration agents are apprehending asylum seekers at their mandated check-in appointments. Second, they’ve ramped up their targeting of Afghan nationals. A half-dozen federal lawsuits filed over the past month illustrate the first: Agents order an asylum seeker with a pending court hearing to show up at an ICE office to “check-in.” The person does so and is immediately detained, despite being in the country legally[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Jan 26

2026

Ryan bars city cooperation with federal immigration

Ryan signs the order flanked by deputy mayors, advocates and NY Assembly members Jon Rivera, left, and Pat Burke, right. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker City of Buffalo police officers and other employees are barred from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, according to an executive order Mayor Sean Ryan signed Monday morning. That means city employees cannot: Inquire about a person’s immigration status while administering a city service. Provide access to databases or other records to civil immigration authorities that are not already public. Make facilities available to immigration authorities that aren’t otherwise already public spaces. Participate in the enforcement[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Jan 20

2026

Niagara County Sheriff pulling back on ICE partnership

Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti, in a policy change, has “reevaluated” his partnership with ICE and has agreed to detain fewer migrants at the Lockport jail. The sheriff, a Republican law enforcement official in a county President Donald Trump won three times, is not cancelling the agreement he signed in May with the federal immigration enforcement agency. But, he and others said, his deputies will only arrest and detain migrants charged with crimes or whose arrest has been approved by a judge. Previously, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office was holding lawful asylum seekers and other civil detainees, primarily women. Among[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Jan 16

2026

Buffalo mayor to ban city cooperation with ICE, others

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[...]

Posted 1 month ago