ICE says its mission is about public safety, while critics call for reforms
Illegal border crossings remain a heated topic of debate between the two presidential candidates.
The worries center around the southern border, but federal data shows a big rise in arrests and detentions in the Buffalo field office’s huge coverage area.
“We’re seeing unprecedented numbers on the northern border,” said Thomas Brophy, the Buffalo field office’s director for Enforcement and Removal Operations, a division of ICE.
The number of arrests across the northern border has increased 173 percent from fiscal years 2021 to 2023, according to ICE statistics. That’s nearly 4,000 arrests. Detentions have also gone up by 119 percent during that time.
Brophy said counties that border Vermont and Canada are the “epicenter for unlawful entries along the northern border,” which spans 48 counties, from Niagara to Clinton.
“Some people do get detained,” he said. “A lot of them do not get detained. We try to detain the worst bad actions that are threats to national security, public safety.”
Brophy said if someone breaks immigration law after entering the U.S., his office will be notified.
“What we’re seeing a lot on our borders, both northern and southern, is a lot of unlawful entry,” he said. “So, a lot of the folks that are coming in have already committed a crime.”
How the process works
When people enter the country illegally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection gives them paperwork to show up in immigration court.
If someone gets arrested, they can either be held or let go, which is when the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division takes over.
There are roughly 200 enforcement officers, 50 of whom work at the Batavia detention center. In addition, there are about 250 employees contracted to work at the detention center.
They oversee some 37,000 cases for those still on the court docket or moving through the immigration process, Brophy said.
An immigration judge decides whether the person can remain in the U.S. or return to their native country. Some are released with a GPS ankle bracelet but must report to the ERO division each month.
Not all report back, however.
Some abscond, Brophy said, and enforcement officers are tasked with finding them.
“I don’t have a figure to say X percent do or don’t,” Brophy said. “We do know that there are people who don’t follow up and are out and about. And that is something that we try and investigate, too. The purpose of the system is to get them in before a judge, so the judge can make a decision whether or not they have a legal right to remain in the United States.”
Sometimes, migrants get approved for a visa or follow the path to U.S. citizenship, which Brophy said he supports.
“Immigration and its impact on American culture is very beneficial, it promotes diversity,” he said.
“If you’re given the opportunity to reside here permanently, take the opportunity, eventually, take the oath, become a citizen,” he said. “That’s what we all want people to do.”
Those who are detained might get before a judge quicker than someone who is not being held in Batavia, Brophy said.
“The majority of the people we detain are because of a threat concern,” Brophy said. “Whether they’ve committed a crime, been convicted of a crime, might be national security concerns. We do hold some people that just made immigration offenses, as well.”
For example, enforcement officers recently made a headline arrest of a Peruvian national in Binghamton. He is alleged to have murdered nearly two-dozen people in his native country and is detained at the Batavia facility.
Officers work closely with foreign governments to ensure that the person is a citizen of that nation. They will prepare travel arrangements for those being deported, Brophy said.
Sometimes, native countries are reluctant to take citizens back, which can delay release from the detention center.
The reasons vary from political turmoil, security risks, or the expense of allowing a national back. ERO will keep an eye on them while authorities work with the U.S. Department of State and their native governments to try to mend those relationships.
“And sometimes, that window is very short, too,” Brophy said. “It might be based on certain conditions that are happening in the country, and they can’t take the people back. Sometimes it might be more of a possible political situation.”
Brophy said ICE and the ERO division deal with what he described as “false statements” about what ICE is and what the agency does.
Is ICE’s mission misconstrued?
In 2019, ICE officials posted a two-page letter on its website to “set the record straight” on its mission.
The officials accused advocacy groups and politicians of spreading “incorrect or misleading information about our mission that is a vital part of national security and public safety.”
Brophy agreed that the agency gets a bad rap.
“We don’t conduct sweeps and raids,” Brophy said. “We don’t police by nationality. We respond to conduct.”
Immigration advocates have been pushing for ICE reforms for years.
“In terms of just Buffalo and immigration enforcement, I mean, it’s a tough place for people,” said Jennifer Connor, the executive direction of Justice for Migrant Families Western New York, a nonprofit that supports those impacted by enforcement activities.
Another problem is that ICE and Customs and Border Protection aren’t being transparent, according to advocates.
The nonprofit Connor leads is a co-plaintiff in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that seeks records on ICE’s policies at the Batavia detention and processing center.
They filed the complaint in 2003, after ICE ignored the FOIA request for eight months.
The lawsuit alleges detainees are subjected to “egregious conditions of confinement” and “unsafe release practices,” which they said can lead to injuries or deaths.
“We want to see people treated better,” Connor said. “We’re here to see more transparency in Batavia.”
ICE’s response to the FOIA request was that the information sought is overbroad and unrealistic to fulfill due to the number of documents the entities requested.
Brophy said the people in custody at Batavia aren’t treated badly, but immigration officials have to constantly defend themselves against those kinds of accusations.
“I want people to understand that we’re not draconian in how people are treated here,” Brophy said. “They’re treated at the highest level.”
The next installment of this series will look at the differences of opinion over what goes on inside the Batavia detention center, and the transparency immigration advocates have leveled against ICE and Customs and Border Protection. Is there any validity to the complaints?
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ICE says its mission is about public safety, while critics call for reforms
Dan Telvock is an award-winning investigative producer and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2018. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.
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