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^To be honest, that is a good point and I thought about making it like a weekly segment in the Buffalo forum, as he basically gives good breakdowns of topics/communities in the area.
National Guard troops being sent to the Cheektowaga hotels housing asylum-seekers from New York City will “act as a stabilizing presence,” Erie County Executive Mark Pononcarz said Saturday, reacting to the arrest Friday of a second migrant on a felony sex charge.
But Cheektowaga Police Chief Brian Gould also called for additional funding for overtime pay to increase his department’s police presence around the hotels in what he called “a very fluid situation.”
Without providing specifics, Gould alluded to potential interference in the investigation into the alleged sexual abuse and false imprisonment of a 27-year-old Buffalo woman who was providing services to asylum-seekers at a Dingens Street hotel. Poloncarz said DocGo, the company hired by New York City to oversee the transport of asylum-seekers to upstate locations, “may have interfered in the Cheektowaga police’s investigation” of the reported crime Friday.
Gould also wants security arrangements at the hotels to be reviewed.
Chrissy Casilio, Poloncarz’s Republican opponent in the race for county executive, assailed how Poloncarz has handled the influx of asylum-seekers to the county.
“Rather than spending taxpayer dollars defending migrant sexual predators, a better use of resources would be fighting against New York State and New York City in the courtroom to block this crisis,” Casilio said.
About 540 asylum-seekers have arrived in Erie County from New York City, where that city’s officials are grappling with housing and caring for tens of thousands of migrants.
Cheektowaga police on Friday arrested Kindu Jeancy, 22, of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on charges of sex abuse and unlawful imprisonment. He is accused of attacking an employee of Platinum Community Care. Since last year, the organization founded in 2016 has provided services to asylum-seekers in New York City hotels, according to its website.
Jeancy was due to be arraigned Saturday evening in Cheektowaga Town Court.
An asylum-seeker from Venezuela faces a charge of raping a woman Aug. 2 in a hotel on the 4000 block of Genesee Street in Cheektowaga. A statement from the Erie County District Attorney’s Office said that reported rape took place in the presence of a 3-year-old child in what Gould described as a domestic violence incident.
“Two serious violent crimes are alleged to have occurred in the past two weeks, and they are two too many,” Poloncarz said. “Our refugee agencies did their best to provide support and assistance. But our community’s trust and good faith has been betrayed. We were assured of the safety, security and proper screening by New York City through DocGo. Clearly that hasn’t been done.”
Poloncarz and Gould called for asylum-seekers to be moved out of a Best Western hotel on Dingens Street, where the attack is alleged to have happened, calling it an unsuitable location to house them, given its proximity to a residential neighborhood.
National Guard troops will be stationed at all three Cheektowaga hotels where migrants are housed, Poloncarz said. It will likely take a day or two for them to arrive, he said.
Poloncarz said refugee agencies, local workers and others “should not and cannot work under the present security conditions.”
Poloncarz said he demanded that New York City Mayor Eric Adams pause further transportation of asylum-seekers to Erie County “until such time we can resolve all security issues.” Adams agreed to that pause, Poloncarz said.
“New York City needs to fix this,” Poloncarz said, referring to the security conditions. “And I am glad to say that Mayor Adams understands the gravity of the situation and has assured me they will.”
The other two hotels in Cheektowaga housing migrants are near Buffalo Niagara International Airport. If the asylum-seekers are moved out of the Dingens Street hotel, it’s not clear where they would go. Poloncarz said it was possible they could be transported back to New York City, or they could be moved to another location in Erie County.
Gould, at a Saturday press conference at police headquarters, said having asylum-seekers housed at the Dingens Street hotel “is causing not only safety concerns for nearby residents, but also quality of life issues.”
Gould said the additional funding he wants would go for overtime pay for the police department, “to increase police presence in the community around the hotel.” The review of security at the hotels is needed “to ensure the security guards hired have training to deal with this special population and they are highly experienced. This is not a factory overnight where we need somebody just watching doors.”
Poloncarz said that DocGo, the company hired by New York City to oversee the transport of asylum-seekers to upstate locations, “may have interfered in the Cheektowaga police’s investigation” of the sex crime reported on Friday.
While not mentioning DocGo by name, Gould also alluded to potential interference in the police investigation.
“I’m asking that those working for the companies that are for providing services to understand that all crimes need to be immediately reported to the police, and that any suspects are not questioned, interviewed or guided in any way prior to our police investigations,” Gould said.
Town Supervisor Diane Benczkowski, who did not attend the press conference, said Cheektowaga is a “welcoming community” that has taken in “hundreds of immigrants” in the past five years.
“However, the town of Cheektowaga residents have had enough,” she said. “It is not fair to them to take in over 500 asylum seekers within a 60-day period without any advance notice from New York City or input from town leaders and town residents. Cheektowaga residents have been put in danger and these incidents have affected their quality of life.”
Benczkowski said she supported removing the asylum-seekers from the Dingens Street hotel to a location outside of Cheektowaga. She wants reimbursement to the town for funds spent on police overtime and staffing to cope with the influx of asylum-seekers. And she doesn’t want any more migrants coming to Cheektowaga.
Michael Jasinski, a Cheektowaga councilmember who is running for town supervisor, said: “I personally feel that our police force is doing an outstanding job. I feel that our county executive has zero answers, as he had right along, zero plans.
“It’s a shame, because it’s not fair to the asylum-seekers and it’s not fair to the people who live here,” he said. “We’re a land of laws — if we followed the laws, none of this would have happened.”
Brian Nowak, also a town councilmember who is running for supervisor, called the responses outlined by officials Saturday “a good start.”
“But I think we need more than just manpower and the National Guard and a new location for the folks at Dingens,” he said. “We need more answers about the exact conditions inside these hotels. … It could be a case where the aid workers are overwhelmed.
“Any time you put a couple hundred folks in a building like that, it’s not going to run as smoothly as you intend,” he said.
Refugees and asylum seekers are not considered "illegal immigrants." There is no law against applying for asylum when entering the US. They are working their way through the system, therefore they are legal, though they are in limbo at this time awaiting processing.
The process is overwhelmed and broken, but the people are not "illegal," while they are awaiting their cases to be reviewed. At least half, if not most, will have their cases denied and they will be deported. But the review process being slow is why there is a backlog, and why so many have to be temporarily housed. More courts, judges, and case managers are needed to relieve the backlog.
Ironically, Cheektowaga has become more diverse anyway. So, the days of suburbs equaling the lack of diversity has been changing, give or take/depending on the town/school district, for decades now.
Whats the difference if you are raped by an asylum seeker or illegal immigrant? Its only semantics. The problem is out of control influx at the border and now they aren't just a Texas problem, they are a Buffalo NY problem.
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