DEEP DIVE INTO BUFFALO'S ICE FACILITY

CM Kaiser
Feb 18
5 min read

Here’s What’s Happening

Around 100 people gathered at the Buffalo ICE detention facility in Batavia, NY on Sunday, Feb. 15th for a rally and vigil to show their opposition against what organizers call ICE’s cruel and inhumane immigration tactics. Rally-goers’ signs showed, “Stop killing us”, “ICE OUT”, and “Here because I love my country and my neighbor”.

According to the ICE Detention Management website, 580 out of 720 (~80%) detainees had no criminal history or pending charges as of Jan. 25th. 50 detainees served one or more days in segregation in October.

According to the Detention Reports website, the average daily population of this facility is 767, which is notably different from the ICE reported number.

The contractual capacity of the facility is only 650.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency owns the facility and utilizes private contractors for daily operational support. Akima Global Services, LLC provides security, food, transportation, and maintenance services under federal contract.

ICE operates a network of approximately 225 active detention facilities. However, the federal government owns only 6-8 of these facilities outright, Batavia being one of them.

Investigative Post has reported allegations and documented complaints involving detainee treatment, including claims of excessive solitary confinement, use of force, and overcrowding at the facility.

NYS Focus reported in October on the ban of book deliveries to detainees in the facility. The facility apparently cited that it was “too difficult for the facility to detect contraband that might come in with the books”.

The Intercept published an article in November reporting a Nigerian migrant held in the facility who had arrived suffering frostbite. He was ordered by a Physician providing emergency care to see a specialist within a week, but allegedly agents in Batavia never took him to the appointment. The report states that parts of six of his fingers had to be amputated because it was too late to save them.

There is no full-time doctor or dentist on-site, according to the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center.

“In reality, people held at the Buffalo Federal Detention Center report going weeks or even months without essential treatment”. They reported their client who suffers from End-stage renal disease missed a dialysis session while detained in Batavia and had to be rushed to ECMC for emergency treatment." - Robert & Ethel Human Rights Center.

Rep. Paul Tonko attempted to exercise his duty as a congress member by conducting an oversight visit in August after the June DHS Inspector General’s Report found the facility’s medical team was understaffed, as well as reports of excessive and inappropriate uses of force by guards.

The congress member was denied access to the facility.

Rep. Nick Langworthy (NY-23) visited the facility in February 2025. When he realized the facility was already at capacity, he wrote a letter, along with Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-24), to the Department of Defense requesting the use of the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station to assist with ICE deportation processing and detention.

He has not commented on the reports of abuse, neglect, or cruelty at the facility at the time of this writing.

Here’s Why It Matters to WNY, Particularly Agriculture

New York farms employed more than 56,000 people in 2022. Nearly 10,000 were employed through the H2A federal guest worker visa program - and estimates as many as half of this workforce in the state were undocumented.

NY’s dairy farms were already at risk of shutting down due to increasing costs of feed, fertilizer, and equipment, which have only been exacerbated by Trump tariffs. NY dairy exports declined by as much as 12% in the first half of 2025, and national soybean sales to China dropped from 985 million barrels to 218 million.

Advocates and agricultural economists have warned that Trump tariffs and the immigration crackdown could force many of our farms to close. Our neighbors will lose their livelihoods and we will rely on foreign nations for more expensive imported goods. The U.S. Department of Labor recognizes this as a serious issue for the nation’s food supply.

The Immigration Research Initiative reports that deporting immigrants will cost NYS and local governments $3.1 billion in state and local taxes alone. That’s not including disruption to businesses and families who lose a breadwinner or foster care costs for children who lose their parents.

New Yorkers will pay more for restaurants, child care, home health aides, construction, farm goods, and more.

“Contrary to popular belief, deporting immigrants reduces the number of jobs for other workers. Reasons include: declining purchasing power for immigrants that reduces local demand; decline in the number of complementary workers - fewer cooks and dishwashers means fewer waiters, fewer construction laborers means fewer construction managers; and declining care worker means lower labor force participation for young parents” - Immigration Research Initiative.

A Note on Nick

Instead of co-sponsoring the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would provide a safe and legal pathway for migrants to come in to do things like labor-intensive farmhand work, Rep. Langworthy has doubled down on his extreme rhetoric against immigrants by arguing that it “normalizes illegal immigration” and that we need to “seal the border”.

Instead, he introduced the CAREERS Act, which prioritizes vocational agribusiness skills rather than immigration-based labor solutions.

WNY farmers argue that the problem is not a lack of trained workers, but a lack of any workers willing to do the grueling manual labor in fields and barns.

Instead of pushing for solutions to systemic problems, Langworthy is scrambling to secure disaster relief funding and support government bailouts while pushing legislation that won’t help, forcing our farmers to hang on by a prayer.

This article summarizes publicly available reporting and government data. All claims regarding facility conditions are attributed to the cited sources.

Sources

Federal Legislation & Background Law

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996

DEEP DIVE INTO BUFFALO'S ICE FACILITY

Here’s What’s Happening

Here’s Why It Matters to WNY, Particularly Agriculture

A Note on Nick

Sources

Reporting & Investigative Journalism

Government & Official Sources

Facility Data & Oversight Resources

Policy, Economic, & Impact Analysis

Federal Legislation & Background Law

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