For two months, a young Venezuelan woman who had been hired to clean the Buffalo Bills’ Highmark Stadium has been detained by ICE.
The woman, Yusgleidy Villa Alvarez, 18, has no criminal history. Until September, she’d been a legal resident of the United States, was on the path to obtaining a green card and had been granted a work permit. Yet without warning, a federal lawsuit alleges, ICE agents arrested her after a shift Sept. 19, the day after the Bills beat the Miami Dolphins at Highmark Stadium.
For more than a month, she was held at the Niagara County jail, which has a contract with ICE to hold migrants, primarily women. She was later moved to another facility out of state.
Attorneys with the Erie County Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyers Project are suing for her release, arguing that her detention is unconstitutional. The case offers a new glimpse into the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants and how those efforts are manifesting in Western New York, particularly in regard to women detainees.
“Yusgleidy’s arrest and detention are wholly unjustified and unrelated to any individualized consideration of her circumstances,” her attorney, Aaron Aisen, wrote in the lawsuit, filed Oct. 23. “She has no criminal record anywhere in the world and family ties and employment in the United States. And yet despite all of this, she currently sits in a jail cell.”
Under its agreement with ICE, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office earns $148 per day for each migrant it detains at its jail in Lockport. As of Nov. 12, the jail held 18 migrant women, though the number fluctuates day to day. By holding Villa Alvarez for more than a month, the Sheriff’s Office earned at least $6,300.
According to the lawsuit, Villa Alvarez entered the United States in August 2023 with two aunts and several cousins. Her father had abandoned her family when she was young, and her mother had died of brain cancer in January of that year.
A year later, in July 2024, federal immigration officials granted Villa Alvarez “special immigrant juvenile status,” setting her on the path to become a legal permanent resident.
She was also granted a status known as “deferred action,” meaning she would not have to attend immigration court hearings and could avoid detention.
In February, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services approved her application for a work permit. The permit was valid through July 2028.
Villa Alvarez, the lawsuit states, began a job as a cleaner at Highmark Stadium on Sept. 19. Unbeknownst to her, however, Customs and Immigration Services terminated her work permit earlier that day. Along with that cancellation, her “deferred action” status was also terminated, meaning she could be subject to immigration court hearings and detention.
She worked a double shift and was then detained by ICE agents.
Such workplace raids have become common under the Trump administration. Investigative Post has previously documented raids of roofing and home construction job sites, for example.
In the lawsuit, Villa Alvarez’s attorneys argue that Customs and Immigration Services “did not perform a legitimate individual assessment of her case prior to arresting her” and that the Department of Homeland Security — the parent agency of ICE — “did not have a warrant to arrest her.”
Aisen, her lawyer, declined to comment for this story. But in the lawsuit, he argued that the federal government retroactively and improperly applied a policy change to his client.
In June, he wrote, Customs and Immigration Services changed how migrants with “special immigrant juvenile status” are treated. The change made those migrants subject to immigration court proceedings, and thus detention.
Such changes typically apply to future immigration cases, rather than ones that have already been processed.
Aisen argues that Customs and Immigration Services applied that change to Villa Alvarez when it shouldn’t have.
“Under [Customs and Immigration Services’] own guidance, Yusgleidy’s deferred action should not have been terminated and she should never have been taken into ICE custody.”
Aisen further argues that applying the policy change to his client violates her due process rights under the Fifth Amendment and that her arrest violates the Fourth Amendment.
Trump administration lawyers filed a motion Wednesday to have the case dismissed. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford has not yet ruled on the matter.
A spokesperson for ICE did not return a request for comment. Neither did Bills spokesperson Todd Starowitz. A spokesperson for Jani-King, which provides janitorial services at Highmark Stadium, also did not respond to a request for comment.