Immigration agents have arrested and detained 44 people in raids across Western New York so far this month.
At truck stops along the New York Thruway in Angola, Clarence and Corfu, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents conducted “immigration inspections” during a four-day operation that swept up 30 drivers and seven others.
On Elmwood Avenue, four Hispanic men were arrested Nov. 13 in front of the Aquacates restaurant by agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations.
And this week, three men working at a home on Nottingham Terrace across from Delaware Park were arrested by ICE.
Arrest data from January to July shows 657 migrants have been arrested by ICE in the eight counties of Western New York.
The region saw a total of 464 ICE arrests for all of last year.
Of those arrested so far this year, two-thirds have no criminal history.
The raids and arrests prompted U.S. Rep. Tim Kennedy to excoriate the Trump administration at a congressional hearing last Wednesday. He said the “deeply politicized mass deportation” program has resulted in “egregious violations of due process.”
Among other cases, Kennedy cited the Elmwood Avenue arrests, arrests at the Buffalo immigration court and the arrest of a migrant woman hired to clean Highmark Stadium.
“We are being lied to and deceived and our values are being betrayed,” he said. “President Trump is completely losing sight of the human impact of these policies. People in my community are suffering as a result.”
From November 8 to 11, Customs and Border Protection made arrests at Western New York truck stops from Angola to Corfu. CBP spokesperson Mike Niezgoda told Investigative Post agents conducted arrests at:
• The Angola service plaza, both east- and west-bound sides.
• The Clarence service plaza.
• The Flying J Travel Center and the TA Travel Center, located off exit 48A in Corfu.
Agents, Niezgoda said, conducted “immigration inspections” of truck drivers parked at each location. Those inspections, he said, involved an agent determining a person’s identity and immigration status. The agents did not know who the drivers were or what their immigration status was prior to the inspections, Neizgoda said.
The inspections, he said, were “consensual.”
“Agents initiated consensual encounters with drivers and conducted immigration inspections of drivers who were not U.S. citizens,” he said. “The questions asked were related to alienage and immigration status in the U.S. When warranted, administrative action was taken for those who were illegally in the U.S.”
The operation resulted in 30 drivers and seven passengers being arrested. Each driver had a valid commercial driver’s license. Niezgoda declined to provide the names of those arrested, but said all were detained because they were deemed to be illegally present in the U.S. He said those arrested were originally from countries including Colombia, Croatia, Ecuador, Honduras, India, and Kazakhstan.
In a statement, Kennedy said taking commercial drivers off the road harms transportation businesses “that are already struggling to hold down costs” due to the Trump administration’s tariffs.
“These stops, which do not appear to target actual criminals like the administration promised, threaten to have a chilling effect on an already-overburdened industry,” he said.
Diane Hinman said she’d been working at the Panera Bread on Elmwood Avenue around 10 a.m. on Nov. 12 when she left to grab a notebook from her car. On her way back into the cafe, she witnessed ICE agents forcibly arresting someone. She began taking photos, which she later shared with Investigative Post.
“I saw a petite man in a green jacket, being chased by some bigger, bulky men, about four or five of them,” she said. “[The man’s] shirt was off because he was struggling, and they had him on the ground, face down, and they cuffed him from behind.”
For more on this story, visit investigativepost.org.