Articles for J. Dale Shoemaker

Jun 6

2025

Concerning contributions to Scanlon campaign

Under city law, one of Buffalo’s largest paving contractors could have been fined and barred from bidding on lucrative contracts because of its admission to wage theft. Instead, the Common Council, despite reservations and headed by then-President Chris Scanlon, awarded D&H Paving $6.9 million in work last July. At the time, the lawmakers expressed concern that D&H Paving was under investigation by the state Department of Labor. That probe, the state’s second into D&H, resulted in a nearly $28,000 fine and a finding that the company’s violations were “willful.” In the midst of the Council’s deliberation, the company’s owner, Michael[...]

Posted 3 days ago

May 30

2025

Another ICE deportation in defiance of court order

For at least the second time since President Donald Trump took office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deported a migrant in defiance of federal judges — this time a Salvadoran man long held in detention in Western New York. The Trump administration’s most recent action occurred May 7. That morning, a panel of federal judges with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City granted the man, Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, permission to remain in the United States while his immigration case wound its way through the courts. Twenty-eight minutes later, however, Melgar-Salmeron was on an ICE Air flight from[...]

Posted 1 week ago

May 28

2025

Detained immigrant family emigrates to Canada

Marcos, Aracely, Madelin and Itzayana on the Rainbow Bridge. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. A Salvadoran family previously detained for weeks in a makeshift cell at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls and separated by ICE has successfully emigrated to Canada and been reunited in Toronto. The mother and her two children were admitted May 5. The father followed them two weeks later, after he was first detained at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Batavia and later released to the Vive shelter on Main Street in Buffalo. Local advocates who assisted the family said it’s a rare[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

May 22

2025

ICE raids immigration court in Buffalo

In a rare, perhaps unprecedented move, armed ICE agents raided the federal immigration court in downtown Buffalo Wednesday, seizing four people who had showed up for scheduled hearings. Two people present in the court building on Delaware Avenue told Investigative Post they saw between six and 12 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers — many in plainclothes, some armed — present in common areas and at least one courtroom. “I’ve never heard of it, I’ve never seen it,” said Jennifer Connor, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Justice for Migrant Families. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen ICE[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

May 20

2025

Local DAs don’t prosecute wage theft cases

Wage theft — the practice of an employer withholding pay or benefits from a worker — has been considered a felony crime in New York since September 2023. Yet in the 20 months since, not a single prosecutor in the eight counties of Western New York has brought a single case under the statute. It’s not for a lack of offenders. Data from state and federal labor investigators shows that at least a dozen cases have met the $1,000 threshold of felony larceny since the law changed. Cases from October, November and December 2023 show eight employers were found to[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

May 14

2025

State to take smaller cut of OTB revenue

Byron Brown speaks to reporters at Batavia Downs. Photo by Garrett Looker. Just six months into his tenure at the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., former Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown netted the agency a major win in Albany. Tucked away in the state’s sprawling $254 billion budget that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Friday is a provision that could save OTB between $4 million and $5 million per year by reducing the state’s take of revenues. In exchange for the savings, OTB must submit an annual report to the Legislature and governor’s office outlining how it spent the millions it saved.[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

May 8

2025

City Hall discusses ‘public-private partnership’ for culturals

Kleinhans Music Hall. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s administration wants to set the record straight: Under no circumstances will the City of Buffalo sell the buildings used by its cultural institutions. “There was never the word ‘sale’ mentioned out of the mayor’s mouth, or anyone in this building’s mouth,” Deputy Mayor Brian Gould said in a recent interview with Investigative Post. “We’ve never said the word ‘privatization.’ We’ve never said the word ‘sale.’” Indeed, it wouldn’t even be possible for the city to sell Kleinhans Music Hall, for example — the deed forbids it. But questions[...]

Posted 1 month ago

May 6

2025

ICE detainee in legal limbo

Saul Valverde-Venegas and his wife, Paula Diaz, on the Maid of the Mist tour in Niagara Falls. Photo provided. Saul Valverde-Venegas, the Buffalo man arrested two weeks ago by federal immigration officers, is stuck — legally and literally. “I’m trying to have a strong mindset,” he told Investigative Post in a phone interview from the Buffalo Federal Detention Center in Batavia, where he’s been held since his April 23 arrest on the city’s West Side. He said the arrest caught him by surprise. “We went out to go to work and they just caught us,” he said. “Of course I[...]

Posted 1 month ago