Erie County Canceled a DHS Job Fair Over ICE. A Republican Legislator Calls It “Totally Inappropriate.”
The Buffalo Convention Center was set to host a two-day, agency-wide DHS Career Expo on Sept. 1–2, 2026, recruiting for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, other law enforcement components, cybersecurity roles, and additional Department of Homeland Security positions. It will not happen. On Aug. 27, 2026, Convention Center President and CEO Patrick Kaler and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz (D) jointly announced the event was canceled — roughly a day after Poloncarz says he first learned it was scheduled at all.
Poloncarz didn’t ask for a scaled-back job fair. He asked management to cancel it outright because ICE was on the recruiter list, citing safety and security concerns over the “anticipated presence of protestors and counterprotestors.” Kaler says the Convention Center first tried a middle path — asking DHS to run the expo without ICE. DHS said that wasn’t possible. That answer settled it.
The reaction from across the aisle was immediate. “The county executive has completely surpassed his power and authority,” said Erie County Legislator Lindsay Lorigo (R-10th District). “This was totally inappropriate for him to call on the management of the convention center to cancel this event.”
- 2 days — the now-canceled DHS Career Expo originally scheduled Sept. 1–2, 2026 at the Buffalo Convention Center · Source: CBP.gov
- 1 day — roughly how long passed between Poloncarz learning of the expo (Wed., Aug. 26) and the joint cancellation announcement (Thu., Aug. 27) · Source: WKBW
- 4th term — Mark Poloncarz's current term as Erie County Executive, re-elected in 2023 · Source: Erie County
- 250 Delaware Ave. — ICE's regional field office in Buffalo — the target of an ongoing 'Evict ICE' campaign that predates this cancellation · Source: BTPM
U.S. Customs and Border Protection had announced the DHS Career Expo as a routine agency-wide recruiting push — two days of hiring booths for ICE, CBP, and other DHS components, plus cybersecurity and support roles, at a major public venue in Buffalo. Nothing in the CBP.gov announcement suggested the event would become a local political flashpoint. Then, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, Poloncarz says he learned the expo was on the Convention Center’s calendar and immediately urged management to cancel it, specifically because of ICE’s participation.
Kaler’s account, confirmed by both WKBW and WIVB, is that the Convention Center didn’t start with cancellation — it tried to negotiate one. Management asked DHS whether the expo could proceed without ICE on site. DHS said no. With that option off the table, Kaler and Poloncarz announced the cancellation on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, citing “safety and security” and the anticipated presence of protesters and counterprotesters.
“When it became clear that was not possible, we made the decision to cancel as we feel it's in the best interests of our community at this time.”
Patrick Kaler, President and CEO, Buffalo Convention Center / Visit Buffalo Niagara · Aug. 27, 2026
Poloncarz, now in his fourth term as Erie County Executive after winning re-election in 2023, framed the cancellation as a values decision about who gets to use a taxpayer-funded building. “Erie County has a long and proud history of welcoming immigrants and refugees from around the world,” he said. “They are our neighbors, coworkers, small business owners and friends, and they have made our community stronger. The Buffalo Convention Center is a publicly owned community asset, and I do not believe it should be used to support recruitment efforts that are inconsistent with the values we have repeatedly expressed as a welcoming community.”
Notably, Erie County and Buffalo have no formal sanctuary-city ordinance that would have required this outcome. Poloncarz’s intervention was a discretionary use of his office’s influence over a county-affiliated venue — not the enforcement of any codified policy. His second stated justification was operational: the expo, he said, “could result in significant protests and civil unrest as has happened elsewhere, requiring an increased law enforcement presence without the benefit of a coordinated response plan between city and county officials.”
Legislator Lindsay Lorigo (R-10th District) went furthest in public, framing the cancellation as an executive-power problem rather than an immigration one. “I think it is a total abuse of his power as county executive, asking the convention center to shut down what was bringing millions into the county in spending,” she said — an economic-impact figure she offered as her own estimate, not one tied to any study cited in the reporting reviewed for this story. “It was a complete and total overreach of the county executive, and it was irresponsible.”
Lorigo argued the county executive should have let the event proceed and let both sides of the dispute play out in public rather than foreclosing it. “If people want to come and protest, they have a First Amendment right, and we should protect that, just like the people who want to attend the career fair have the right to attend,” she said.
Erie County Executive: Mark Poloncarz (D) — requested the cancellation; his office has no direct authority over the Convention Center’s booking calendar but leaned on its leadership to act.
Erie County Legislator, 10th District: Lindsay Lorigo (R) — has publicly accused Poloncarz of overstepping his authority; holds no formal role over the Convention Center either.
Buffalo Convention Center / Visit Buffalo Niagara President & CEO: Patrick Kaler — nonpartisan appointed executive who made the final call to cancel, in coordination with Poloncarz, after DHS declined to run the expo without ICE.
The cancellation didn’t happen in a vacuum. Buffalo has an active, sustained “Evict ICE” organizing campaign specifically targeting ICE’s regional field office at 250 Delaware Ave., and that campaign had been pressuring officials to kill the job fair before Poloncarz intervened. Organizer Caitlin Love Crowell put the argument in ownership terms nearly identical to Poloncarz’s: “This building was publicly funded and is in fact publicly owned, and I don’t see that we should be — as taxpayers in Erie County as residents in Buffalo — supporting this kind of job fair.”
DHS pushed back through an unnamed spokesperson, framing the criticism as theater rather than substance: “Our agents are focused on protecting the American people — not entertaining performative outrage. Where is the outrage for Angel families who lost a loved one to illegal alien crime?” The agency also cited polling claiming “80% of Americans” support its enforcement posture, though it did not name the poll or provide a source — a talking point, not a verified figure.
“Our agents are focused on protecting the American people — not entertaining performative outrage.”
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, statement to reporters · Aug. 28-29, 2026
As of this writing, no venue has been announced to replace the Buffalo Convention Center, and DHS has not said whether it will relocate the expo, scale it back, or drop it for this cycle. The dates that were supposed to matter — Sept. 1–2, 2026 — will now pass with no DHS hiring event in Buffalo at all. This is a fast-developing local story: the cancellation is roughly 48 hours old as of publication, national outlets picked it up only in the last day, and Lorigo’s on-the-record pushback landed less than 24 hours before this page went up. It may still move.
What’s already clear is the shape of the precedent: a Democratic county executive used his office’s informal leverage over a publicly owned venue — not a sanctuary-city ordinance, not a City Council vote, not a court order — to keep a federal law enforcement agency from recruiting on it. Buffalo joins a growing list of Democratic-run jurisdictions where officials have reached for discretionary tools against ICE-linked events rather than codified policy — and it lands amid a growing chorus of Republican officials, in Erie County and beyond, arguing that discretion has hardened into overreach.
A federal agency wanted to hire in Buffalo. A Democratic county executive decided ICE’s presence made that impossible on a publicly owned stage, and a convention-center CEO went along after DHS refused a middle path. No ordinance forced the outcome — Poloncarz’s office simply asked, and the venue said yes. Whether that’s prudent crowd management or, as Legislator Lindsay Lorigo (R) puts it, “a total abuse of power,” depends on whether you think elected officials should be able to veto a federal recruiting event by leaning on a building whose calendar they don’t actually control.
Last updated August 29, 2026