Arrests of migrants across upstate surged this summer, driven by more agents and a federal response to a new state law that restricts cooperation with local law enforcement agencies. Vicki Ross, right, a board member of the Western New York Peace Center, protests a Homeland Security job fair Tuesday at Buffalo’s Outer Harbor. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. The City of Buffalo has been an epicenter of a surge in arrests by ICE agents this year. Apprehensions are on pace to grow by nearly 69 percent over last year and few of those targeted — only 11 percent — have a criminal record. Among those seized were Keiber Alexander Esposito Martinez, a chef at Casa Azul, a Mexican restaurant in the city’s Allentown neighborhood. Originally from Venezuela, he was arrested in June on his way to work. He has no criminal record, an active asylum application, and had been granted a status that provided a safeguard against deportation. He’s being held at ICE’s detention center in Batavia and is suing in federal court for his release. “He came in legally, he did not cross the border unlawfully,” said his attorney, Matthew Borowski. “Visible groups that look Latino or look Bangladeshi are being targeted.” An Investigative Post analysis of ICE arrest data for the year, through Aug. 5, shows that’s true. The data additionally shows: ICE arrests have surged this summer. The agency has picked up more than 2,900 migrants across upstate this year, a 48-county region, with more than half of those occurring between May 1 and Aug. 5. Of those arrested, 75 percent had no criminal record. Half had active immigration cases. Buffalo this year has seen 515 ICE arrests. Rochester has had nearly 350, Syracuse almost 200. Another 200 arrests have occurred in Alden, almost exclusively of men incarcerated at the Erie County jail or state prison located there. Niagara Falls and Corfu, a rural village in Genesee County, have also experienced marked surges in arrests this summer. About 60 migrants in each locale have been arrested in 2026, with the majority of those arrests taking place since June. Nearly half of those arrested across upstate this year have been deported, voluntarily or otherwise. “These are people who are just swept up cold from their work site or their commute or wherever,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies for the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute. “This is totally unique to this administration.” The surge in arrests — particularly those this summer — can be largely attributed to two factors: ICE has more than doubled its workforce and the agency is retaliating against New York for a new law restricting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agencies. On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced agents had rounded up nearly 2,200 migrants across the state in an operation that ran from late July to late August. He said in a press release the operation was in response to a law Gov. Kathy Hochul signed that canceled agreements several sheriff’s offices had with ICE. The operation “did what sanctuary politicians in New York City and the state of New York refuse to do,” Mullin said. Those agreements, however, known as 287(g) contracts, produced meager results. The data categorizes just 53 arrests across upstate New York — less than 1 percent — as occurring due to a partnership between ICE and local law enforcement. Detailed data is available for just 10 days of Mullin’s operation but shows it netted 239 arrests in the upstate region, including 44 in Buffalo. Announcement of those arrests came on the same day Mullin’s department held a workforce recruitment event in Buffalo. “They are just expanding their operations in terms of the number of people available,” Bier said. “The number of agents plus [more] detention beds, is going to explain a lot of what we’re seeing.” Data details surge in arrests For the first time, arrest data released by ICE includes the municipality where the apprehension took place. Buffalo leads, with more than 1,100 arrests since Trump’s return to office. Rochester follows with 631 and Syracuse with 436. Most migrants arrested are men: 92 percent. Just 7 percent are women. Nearly three-quarters of all those arrested in upstate since Trump’s return have no criminal record. Almost two-thirds — 63 percent — have been deported. Of those who have left the country, nearly half — 43 percent — did so voluntarily. Those migrants, said Bier of the Cato Institute, are “giving up on their legal rights … because they don’t want to sit detention for an indefinite period of time.” Since ICE has restricted bonds for detainees, detention can last months, if not years. Local immigration courts have also grown hostile to migrants, a previous Investigative Post analysis found. The only sure-fire ways out of detention are a federal court order or deportation. “It’s been a very effective method for them to get people to give up on their applications or their due process,” Bier said. A majority of the ICE arrests in Buffalo involve migrants from Ecuador, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Mexico or Guatemala, the ICE data shows. Bier contended that the large number of arrests are hurting local economies across the country, including Buffalo. Roofers, restaurant workers and truck drivers have all been targeted by ICE in high-profile raids across Western New York. “It’s a blow to the tax base. It’s a blow to the consumer base. It’s a blow to the workforce,” he said. ICE also targeted those already in prison ICE arrests in Buffalo total 1,127 since Trump’s return to Washington. The vast majority — 89 percent — had no criminal record. Across upstate, 72 percent of those arrested had no criminal record. That’s not the story Mullin and ICE are telling about the surge in New York. That roundup, he said Tuesday, led to the arrests of “murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and violent assailants.” However, many of the criminals arrested by ICE were already in prison — a trend Investigative Post first identified last summer. Take Alexandr Dyatchin, for example. The Serbian national was arrested in 2024 for selling cocaine and ecstasy downstate and was sentenced last August to five years at the state’s Lakeview prison in Chautauqua County. His earliest release date, according to the state’s database of inmates, was July 2029. But ICE sprung him early last week for deportation to Russia. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletters The ICE Buffalo office also recently trumpeted the arrest of Guyana native Sean Lopes, who was sentenced to 14 to 16 years for kidnapping and skipping bail. He wasn’t eligible for parole until next February, according to state data. ICE allowed him to skip the last six months of his sentence so he could be deported. The agency similarly sprung Cary Brown, a Jamaican sentenced to three to nine years in prison for the hit-and-run homicide of a New York City motorcyclist. He was supposed to be in state prison until at least 2029, but ICE took custody of him in August. “They’re interested in just getting bodies in the door and making these arrests,” Bier said. “But from a standpoint of public safety, it’s questionable.” posted 1 month ago - September 3, 2026