Press Releases
Kennedy Denounces Trump Administration and ICE for Egregious Attacks on Immigrant Communities in WNY
Washington,
November 20, 2025
Tags:
Homeland Security
Kennedy: “We are being lied to and deceived, and our values have been betrayed.” Noting More than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Illegally Detained While Core Missions of Homeland Security Have Been Sidelined, Kennedy Demands Answers from ICE WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a hearing held Wednesday by Democratic members of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Congressman Tim Kennedy (NY-26) condemned the Trump Administration and ICE for their reckless raids that have spread fear throughout immigrant communities across the nation, including in Kennedy’s district in the Buffalo-Niagara Region. Kennedy noted that more than 170 U.S. citizens have been wrongfully detained, while at the same time, thousands of Department of Homeland Security employees, from Coast Guard to anti-terrorism investigators, have been pulled from their core mission to support Trump’s politicized immigration agenda. In a letter to ICE’s Buffalo Field Office, Kennedy demanded transparency and answers, including a breakdown of how many immigrants with and without criminal records have been detained and/or deported, as well as the conditions both at the Batavia Service Processing Center and at Border Patrol stations.
“This administration is focusing on people who are reporting dutifully to their jobs every morning, who are attending school, and who are in many cases arriving at courthouses to address their immigration status the lawful way,” said Congressman Kennedy. “These are folks who, just like their American citizen neighbors, want to work hard, want to contribute to their communities, and want to raise their children to be more successful than themselves. In short, they want the same American dream we all want. We are a welcoming community that experienced decades of economic decline and population loss. Now, with thousands of New Americans settling in our community with refugee status, we have seen our population not just stabilize, but grow. That sense of a welcoming community is deeply at risk, though. We are better than this. It is not who we are as a nation, and it cannot be who we become.” Kennedy recounted the human impact of Trump’s ICE policies on Western New Yorkers, including a woman arrested following a double shift at the Bills stadium, a local restaurant that was forced to close its doors, and UB students who had their visas revoked. These raids and attacks on immigrants are having a chilling effect on the City of Good Neighbors, a community whose recent growth is largely due to the influx of refugees and other legal immigrants. Kennedy closed his remarks with a demand that the House Republican Majority live up to its responsibility to use its oversight powers and hold the Administration to account. The text of Kennedy’s letter is below: Buffalo ICE Field Office 250 Delaware Avenue, Floor 7
The Honorable Kristi Noem Secretary U.S. Department of Homeland Security 2707 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, S.E. Washington, D.C. 20528 U.S. Customs and Border Protection Buffalo Sector Headquarters 201 Lang Blvd. Grand Island NY 14072
November 18, 2025 To Whom It May Concern, I write to request specific information as it relates to immigration enforcement and deportation operations in New York’s 26th Congressional District. As the Representative of the Buffalo-Niagara Region in Congress, I take seriously my constitutional responsibility to conduct congressional oversight and ensure that due process is being followed, protected, and upheld. Accordingly, I request that you provide answers to the following questions no later than December 1, 2025.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact staff in my office with any additional questions. Sincerely,
Timothy M. Kennedy Member of Congress (NY-26) |
