Tag: ICE

Jul 16

2025

ICE deception on immigrant detentions

Published by

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 5 months ago

Jul 1

2025

ICE targets Iranian family in Buffalo here legally

Published by

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 5 months ago

Jun 20

2025

Feds seeking to deport sickle cell patient over theft

Published by

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 5 months ago

Jun 17

2025

Feds won’t retrieve wrongfully deported migrant

Published by

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 6 months ago

Jun 13

2025

Feds adding migrant detention centers in Buffalo area

Published by

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 6 months ago

Jun 2

2025

Incompetency and arrogance in service to cruelty

Published by

Below is the complete verion of WeeklyPost, the newsletter we send via email on Sunday mornings. Our Monday Morning Read typically includes a portion of that newsletter; today, we’re publishing it in its entirety. If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so here. ICE did it again. Back in March it deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in defiance of a court order, an action that generated international attention and condemnation. ICE officials said the deportation was the result of an “administrative error.” Not that they’ve attempted to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Well, ICE[...]

Posted 6 months ago

May 30

2025

Another ICE deportation in defiance of court order

Published by

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 6 months ago

May 28

2025

Detained immigrant family emigrates to Canada

Published by

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 6 months ago
Investigative Post