Some officials and residents in Cheektowaga want a broader overhaul of their cops’ interactions with immigration agents.
Some officials and residents in Cheektowaga want a broader overhaul of their cops’ interactions with immigration agents. ·  View in browser
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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
Some officials and residents in Cheektowaga want a broader overhaul of their cops’ interactions with immigration agents.
By Isabelle Taft

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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Staying Focused is compiled and written by Alex Arriaga
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