Criminal Justice New York State Immigration

Police Department Retrains Officers on Immigration Enforcement Policies After New York Focus Investigation

Some officials and residents in Cheektowaga want a broader overhaul of their cops’ interactions with immigration agents.

Isabelle Taft · January 23, 2026

Cheektowaga police called US Border Patrol when they encountered people they suspected of being in the country illegally. | Cheektowaga badge: Cheektowaga Police Department; CBP Badge: DHS; Walden Galleria Mall photo: Cathy Smith/Wikimedia Commons | Illustration: New York Focus

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The Cheektowaga Police Department implemented a new training clarifying that officers can only detain people for immigration violations in limited circumstances, following a New York Focus investigation that found some detentions last year may have been illegal.

New York Focus found that police in Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo, called US Border Patrol when they encountered people they suspected of being in the country illegally or whose identification documents they didn’t trust, resulting in at least 15 people being taken into federal custody for immigration proceedings. A state appellate court ruled in 2018 that local police can’t detain people for civil immigration offenses, like overstaying a visa, without a warrant.

Most of the people arrested by Border Patrol had been charged with minor crimes like shoplifting, or no crime at all, according to police incident reports. One of them, a Cuban citizen identified in court filings as JMA, argued that Cheektowaga police violated state law by detaining him after processing his shoplifting charge — which was later dismissed — so that Border Patrol could take him into custody.

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Cheektowaga Police Department Captain Jeffrey Schmidt said that New York Focus’s reporting led him to launch a training for the department’s roughly 130 officers emphasizing that officers must not detain people for civil immigration violations without a warrant.

“Absent you contacting us in the first place, because it’s such a small portion of what we do, we’d probably never go down this path,” Schmidt said.

It’s unclear whether the training will significantly change how officers interact with immigration authorities. Schmidt said the training aimed to bring the department’s practices in line with its written policy on “immigration violations.” That policy allows officers to detain people whom they suspect have broken criminal immigration law, like by entering the United States without permission, rather than civil law. The policy allows officers to take into consideration someone’s English proficiency and whether they offer immigration documentation that officers feel is dubious.

The hour-long training took place in December, Schmidt said, and was based on public guidance from the state attorney general’s office regarding local police and immigration enforcement. A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office previously said it was “aware and reviewing” the Cheektowaga police’s interactions with Border Patrol. The office had no comment when asked about the department’s new training.

Some localities across New York have made headlines for entering into formal partnerships with immigration authorities, such as 287(g) agreements that empower local cops to enforce federal immigration law. Cheektowaga has no such agreement.

State lawmakers and immigrant rights advocates are pushing for legislation, like the New York for All Act, that would bar police officers from asking people about immigration status and assisting immigration enforcement authorities. State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins recently announced her support for New York for All; state Assembly leadership has not, and Governor Kathy Hochul recently signaled that she will not support it.

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In Cheektowaga, some residents and officials want to see a complete overhaul of the police department’s immigration-related policies. Town Supervisor Brian Nowak recently announced that he wants to implement new restrictions on cooperation between the department and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though the specifics are still unclear. He cited civil rights violations in Minneapolis, where an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good earlier this month.

“We don’t want to do something that swings the pendulum too far in the direction to where we don’t work with the feds at all no matter what,” he said Sunday evening on Facebook Live. But if the town doesn’t make changes, “we’re going to come to regret it,” he added.

At a meeting of the Cheektowaga Town Board last week, about two dozen speakers urged officials to enact statutes that end police collaboration with federal immigration agents. Some cited incidents reported by New York Focus and Investigative Post.

“One of the biggest issues is how unclear their policies are,” Rachel Martinez, a Cheektowaga resident and member of Erie County Women United, said after the meeting. “It leaves it up to individual officers to use their judgment as to when it’s necessary or appropriate” to contact immigration authorities.

Stephen Nowicki, a recently elected Democratic town board member, told New York Focus he started hearing from constituents concerned about the police department’s immigration policies after Good was killed.

“I don’t need to see a headline where Cheektowaga and CBP have something like that happen,” he said. “There’s so much to lose by having them work together, and in my opinion, there’s so little to gain.”

Schmidt, the police captain, said his department is bracing for litigation over its interactions with immigration authorities, including potentially by JMA. JMA is suing ICE over his ongoing incarceration at a federal immigration detention center in nearby Batavia, which began after Cheektowaga police charged him with shoplifting and then called Border Patrol.

“It does appear that we probably did hold him on a civil detainer and turn him over,” Schmidt said. “So we are anticipating that probably will end up being a lawsuit for us.”