Press release
On Sunday, July 19th, community members are demanding that local, state, and federal leaders use whatever power they have to stop the expansion of the Buffalo Detention Center in Batavia, NY. This demonstration is part of the nationwide “Good Trouble Lives On” effort [https://www.goodtroubleliveson.org/] which demands democracy and opposes authoritarianism. The recent announcement of the detention center expansion is the most recent and blatant example of an anti-democratic decision, as it does not need approval from local people, nor even local planning and zoning boards, to increase the capacity of US Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) to carry out their authoritarian mission locally.
From 12:00 to 2:00 PM, GLOW Community Alliance and Genesee County Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) will hold this demonstration outside Batavia City Hall [https://g.co/kgs/G5YyNiZ].
Gina Schelemanow is chair of Genesee County DSA, which is co-organizing the demonstration. “We don’t need an addition on the detention center in Batavia. Having a detention center in Batavia to begin with is not ideal,” they said, “We are a community of neighbors and this extends to our immigrant neighbors. Spreading hate and disappearing members of our community is not welcome here.”
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expanding the Batavia Detention Center, building for 100 more beds. We oppose detention and deportation altogether,” said Jane Schmieder, a local attorney who is co-organizing the rally with GLOW Community Alliance, “Batavia will be known as the destination for mistreating and caging our Hispanic neighbors. That is not who we are.”
“These sorts of authoritarian shock troops have no place in a decent society,” said Logan W. Cole, secretary of Genesee County DSA. “We should be working towards a society without ICE rather than giving them more resources to detain folks who did nothing wrong – families that are trying to do the right thing, work, go to school, be productive contributors to society, are frightened. We all saw what happened by the Quality Inn,” he said, referring to an incident that occurred in Batavia on July 10th, in which ICE agents in unmarked vehicles profiled, surrounded, and harassed a United States citizen.
“Good Trouble Lives On” actions are happening across the country and what ICE is doing here in Batavia is the antithesis of good trouble. This demonstration – folks standing up for their community and against authoritarian institutions like ICE that infringe on the democratic autonomy of community members, documented and undocumented – is the epitome of good trouble.