The Niagara County Jail is making money by jailing innocent people for federal immigration authorities. In addition, Niagara County Deputies are training to serve as ICE agents, participating in the same type of immigrant abductions that are happening across the country.

Niagara County Jail should not be jailing innocent people

Sheriff Michael Filicetti has been clear that his office simply jails those whom federal immigration authorities give them, without any checking to see if they have committed a crime or are in the country legally. "I don't know their circumstances," he explained to the Lockport newspaper. The County Sheriff's Office has justified the jailings as a financial move, bringing in $148 per day per prisoner. 

County Deputies should not serve as ICE agents

As a border county, it is understandable why Niagara County would have a long standing working relationship with federal immigration authorities, but the current incarnation of those agencies is nothing like it was in the past. The people being arrested are not 'the worst of the worst'. Across the country, only a small fraction of migrants abducted by ICE have actually committed any criminal offense, a fact true in WNY as well. For example, of the 335 ICE arrests in WNY in the first half of 2025, nearly 80% had no criminal record. Many are also legally in the U.S. or in the middle of legal proceedings to grant them legal status.

ICE practices frequently violate the fundamental rules for county law enforcement. For example, in the August ICE abduction of a young Ecuadorian father right in front of Lockport High School, ICE agents left his mother and 7-year-old daughter in 90 degree heat with no way home (they had to be rescued by school staff). This would never be allowed of deputies in the Sheriff's Department. 

This collaboration is a huge liability for Niagara County

It is clear from legal cases around the country that counties that collaborate with ICE are on the financial hook. Maricopa County, in Arizona, accumulated $43 million in litigation costs. Events such as wrongful arrests, injuries, or deaths expose Niagara County to legal liabilities that could be huge.

We call for an end to this collaboration

For all of these reasons, the County's collaboration with federal immigration authorities is not simply an administrative matter to be handled by a department head (the Sheriff). This is a moral decision that must be made by the people of Niagara County through our elected legislators. We call on our elected officials to take action to end this collaboration that makes the community complicit in the despicable actions federal immigration authorities are committing in WNY and across the country!