Articles for J. Dale Shoemaker

Jul 1

2025

ICE targets Iranian family in Buffalo here legally

The corner of West Delavan Ave. and Greenwood Pl. on Buffalo’s West Side. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. For nearly a week, immigration agents in Buffalo have targeted a block on the city’s West Side, seeking to detain an Iranian man living there. The man is in the United States legally. He has no criminal history, no warrant for his arrest and regularly checks in with immigration officials as part of his asylum case. He’s seeking to stay in the country permanently with his son after having fled persecution in Iran for his political activity. Since Wednesday, agents believed to[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Jun 25

2025

Buffalo primary voters sought change in City Hall

With a commanding voice Tuesday, Buffalo’s Democratic voters said they preferred state Sen. Sean Ryan to lead the city over Acting Mayor Christopher Scanlon. At polling sites across the city Tuesday, voters told Investigative Post reporters that they were ready for change in City Hall — be that Ryan, former fire commissioner Garnell Whitfield, University Common Council Member Rasheed Wyatt or even newcomer Anthony Tyson-Thompson. Most of those interviewed favored someone other than Scanlon, a reflection of the actual vote. The acting mayor, some said, had failed to gain their trust eight months after succeeding Byron Brown, who resigned in[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Jun 20

2025

Feds seeking to deport sickle cell patient over theft

U.S. immigration officials are seeking to deport to Venezuela a 20-year-old migrant living in Buffalo and suffering from sickle cell disease because he has been accused of shoplifting at the Walden Galleria Mall. A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Investigative Post the charge of shoplifting “nullifies” Anderson Contreras-Hernandez’s legal status and, under the newly enacted Laken Riley Act, means he must be detained by immigration authorities. To date, he has not been convicted of any crime. The spokesperson described Contreras-Hernandez as “amenable to deportation.” His attorneys, in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, have appealed to U.S. District Judge[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Jun 17

2025

Feds won’t retrieve wrongfully deported migrant

Jordin Melgar-Salmeron. Photo submitted. Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, the Salvadoran man long detained in Batavia and deported to his home country last month in violation of a federal court order, is allowed to return to the United States. But only if he can get to the border himself. That’s the position the Trump administration has taken in the case, according to recent court filings reviewed by Investigative Post. Melgar-Salmeron’s attorneys are demanding the government actively facilitate his return, as it did for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, another Salvadoran man deported in violation of a court order whose case has gained wide attention. Following[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Jun 13

2025

Feds adding migrant detention centers in Buffalo area

U.S. immigration agencies have expanded their footprint in Western New York, detaining arrested migrants in five locations beyond the federal detention center in Batavia. One reason for the detentions: The ICE facility in Batavia has been periodically near or over capacity in recent months and cannot house women or children, according to advocates for detainees. In the Town of Tonawanda, 23 immigrants have been detained for the past 10 days at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection station located at 600 Colvin Woods Parkway. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson confirmed those detentions Wednesday. The station is in an office[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Jun 11

2025

What wage theft allegations?

For a eight time Wednesday, the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency approved subsidies for a fast food restaurateur under investigation for wage theft. And just like every other subsidy the IDA has authorized for Muhammad Shoaib over the past two years, the $48,750 grant garnered no discussion and was approved unanimously. Fast food restaurants are generally ineligible for any IDA assistance under New York law. But because Shoaib is opening many of his stores in downtown Niagara Falls, IDA leaders have allowed him to exploit a loophole that allows tax breaks and grants for retail establishments in “economically distressed” areas.[...]

Posted 2 months ago

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 2 months 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 2 months ago