Reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the greater Binghamton area have prompted local leaders and activists to speak out.
On July 10, local activist group Concerned Residents of Greater Binghamton sent out a community safety alert claiming multiple people had been detained by ICE on July 6 and 7 in an operation they say targeted “mostly Spanish-speaking laborers.”
The locations where ICE has reportedly been seen making arrests include Home Depot on Peoples Street in the Village of Johnson City, McDonald’s on E. Main Street in the Village of Endicott, Endicott BOCES, Walmart on Vestal Parkway in the Town of Vestal and the Red Roof Inn in Johnson City.
Concerned Residents of Greater Binghamton Coordinator Adam Flint said on July 13 he does not know the exact number of people who have been detained, but he believes there have been at least two dozen arrests made since the first ICE sightings began early in the morning on July 6.
While Spanish-speaking laborers are the people ICE is “always targeting,” Flint said they are “definitely not the only people they are taking.”
Photos and videos also circulated around social media during the week of July 5, with one video posted to Facebook showing men wearing masks and vests with unmarked vehicles in the parking lot of Apple Foods convenience store and gas station on Riverside Drive in Johnson City.
ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment as of July 13.
Local leaders respond
On July 9, Binghamton City Councilmember Rebecca Rathmell posted a statement on Facebook claiming that at least 25 to 30 people have been detained by ICE agents.
The agents, who she said she believes are staying at the Hampton Inn in Johnson City, “appear to know exactly who they are looking for” and are specifically targeting “Spanish speakers in construction trades” by “stopping workers en route to job sites in the morning.”
She also claimed agents have detained at least one Endicott BOCES employee who she alleges has full legal status. She provided a script written by CRGB for people who are approached by ICE as well as two phone numbers for reporting ICE activity.
“Every person on American soil has constitutional rights and you are not alone,” Rathmell said.
Johnson City Mayor Christina Charuk denounced the increase in ICE activity in the village in a Facebook post, saying “our neighbors are not our enemies” and Johnson City “exists because generations of immigrants built it.”
“Wherever you were born, your humanity is not up for debate,” Charuk said. “You deserve dignity, you deserve respect and you deserve a community that sees you not as a headline or a talking point, but as a neighbor. That is the Johnson City I believe in and that is the Johnson City I will always advocate for.”
The alleged ICE raids come just over five months after the Village of Johnson City trustees struck down a resolution aiming to prevent local police cooperation with federal immigration and customs enforcement on Feb. 3.
The resolution, which was written and introduced by Charuk, would prevent the Johnson City Police Department from initiating stops, questioning, detaining, arresting or surveilling for the purpose of determining or enforcing civil immigration status. It would also ensure that village funds, personnel, facilities, equipment or information systems could not be used to assist in civil immigration investigations, apprehensions, detentions or arrests.
Just two days after her initial statement on July 8, Charuk posted a follow-up on Facebook in which she said the people who had been taken from a job site by alleged ICE agents were “legally authorized to work in the United States” and were “not permitted to retrieve documentation that was inside their vehicles before being detained.”
“Local government cannot dictate federal immigration policy, but we can decide who we are as a community,” she said. “I invite all of us to stand with our neighbors, to keep advocating for due process and against unlawful detainment.”
Broome County Legislator Timothy Ames also took to Facebook to denounce the alleged arrests, saying he believes ICE should only detain people if there is “a judicial warrant issued to apprehend a person, and it is done in a lawful and humane way that ensures the rights and protections guaranteed under our founding documents.”
“As your county legislator, I will continue to speak up for every person who calls District 15, and Broome County, home,” Ames said. “I will continue to push for policies that strengthen trust between residents and local government, not tear it down, and I will continue to reject the politics of fear, because fear has never fixed a road, kept a family housed, solved a crime or made a neighborhood stronger.”
ICE policy changes in Broome County
In March 2025, Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar announced corrections officers working in the correctional facility would begin assisting ICE by participating in the warrant service officer portion of ICE’s 287(g) program.
The program authorizes state and local law enforcement to assist ICE by performing specified immigration officer functions, including executing administrative warrants within the jail. The sheriff’s office does not participate in any active immigration enforcement activities in the community, and the jail has been housing federal detainees for decades, according to the sheriff’s office.
In April 2026, Akshar announced a “slight policy change” which made it a requirement to receive an official order from a judge before housing any more federal ICE detainees in the county jail.
While answering questions at a Binghamton Rotary Club meeting on June 9, Akshar said the correctional facility currently houses 449 inmates and 60 are federal detainees. Fifty of those 60 inmates are being held for the U.S. Marshals Service and 10 are being held for ICE.
Before changing the policy, Akshar said he sat down privately with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to talk about immigration. Following that conversation, Akshar said he told ICE that the sheriff’s office will not be taking any more detainees on civil detainers without an official order for their detention from a judge.
Hochul introduced a bill on Jan. 30 that could potentially void 287(g) agreements in eight counties, including Broome County, and three small villages in New York.
The legislation would bar state and local police from “acting as federal agents” or “using taxpayer-funded resources or personnel to carry out federal civil immigration enforcement,” according to Hochul’s announcement. It would also prohibit federal agents from using local detention centers for “civil immigration enforcement, mass raids or the transportation of detainees.”
Akshar said he believes the 10 people currently housed in the correctional facility will be moved when the state law is fully enacted on Aug. 25.
In Binghamton, a piece of legislation that prohibits the use of city funds, resources and personnel for federal immigration purposes was passed by the city council in December 2025. The city was the first municipality in Broome County to pass legislation limiting ICE capabilities, a resolution that inspired the one introduced by Charuk in February.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Officials, activists allege increased ICE activity in Binghamton area
Reporting by Jillian McCarthy, Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin / Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jillian McCarthy, Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin | USA TODAY Network
