Actions for the Week of 1/18/26

Written By Darbie Maccubbin

How to contact your elected officials

Use this link to find contact information for ALL of your elected officials – Federal, State, City, and County – just by entering your address: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Other useful links:

Action 1: If You Live, Work, Shop, or do Business in Cheektowaga: Urge the Cheektowaga Town Board to End Collusion Between the Cheektowaga Police Dept. and ICE

From Erie County Women United

The Issue:

Cheektowaga Police Department has assisted ICE in arrests more than any other local department - accounting for two-thirds of all arrests where local police assisted. In the eight counties of Western New York, 83% of the people arrested were cited for immigration violations - a civil violation on par with a parking ticket, not a crime - and had no prior criminal history (IP, 12/9/2025).

Cheektowaga police are known to question migrants on their legal status and turn them over to Border Patrol agents, and some have made it a practice to question migrants detained for other offenses - like shoplifting or running a stop sign - about their legal status (IP, 12/12/2025). This is in direct violation of the NYS Appellate Court ruling in 2018, and opens our town up to legal issues, like we have just seen in Suffolk county where $112 Million was just ordered to be paid to people unlawfully detained for ICE to arrive (NY Focus, 11/26/2025).

Research shows that there is no correlation between undocumented people and a rise in crime (The New York Times, The Marshall Project). Numerous studies show that not only is immigration linked to lower levels of crime, but also the positive impact on concentration of immigrants in a community on crime patterns, leading to lower crime rates and increased economic opportunity and social connection - factors that lend to neighborhood safety (Brennan Center). Studies published by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) show that undocumented immigrants had the lowest offending rates overall for both total felony crime and violent felony crime compared to other groups. (NIJ, 2022)

Cheektowaga has no legal partnership with ICE, and ICE's budget for Fiscal Year 2026 is an estimated $11 billion. The Town of Cheektowaga does not need to use its limited town police resources - resources meant for local crime and traffic safety - to subsidize a massive federal agency.

Conversely, immigrants are vital contributors to the local economy. According to the American Immigration Council, New York's 26th Congressional District receives $498.7 million in taxes from immigrants, and they add $1.1 billion in buying power to our community. These people are valuable members of our society, and they deserve to be treated as such (American Immigration Council - for Buffalo Niagara Region as a whole, see: International Institute of Buffalo).

What you can do: email the new Democratic Majority and let them know we stand with our neighbors, NOT ICE.

Stephen Nowicki: snowicki@tocny.org - 716-686-3446

Monica Elderkin: melderkin@tocny.org - 716- 3446

Tiffany Lewis: tlewis@tocny.org - 716- 686-3446

Brian Nowak: bnowak@tocny.org - 716-686-3465

Brian Pilarski: bpilarski@tocny.org - 716-686-3446

We encourage you to use your own words, but here's an example script for inspiration.

Hello,

My name is [NAME], and I am a [constituent / worker / patron] in Cheektowaga. I am writing today to express my concern with the Cheektowaga Police Department’s policy 414 on “Immigration Violations”, and their cooperation with U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

I am (appalled, outraged, etc.) to read reports of human rights violations occurring with the help of our town police force. We have read of people being gassed and beaten in our community, our police force traumatizing victims of domestic violence by calling ICE on the victim, children questioned after leaving a bus stop, and deporting sick people here on work permits accused only of misdemeanors.
Crucially, these are only the incidents that have been reported, there are likely many more undocumented instances of abuse. I urge the town board to take action, IMMEDIATELY, to stop these practices. These practices are not only inhumane - they are un-American. Please stop the erosion of trust citizens have in our town police, and help create an environment where members of our community are no longer targeted based on their skin color or the language they speak.

I ask the Cheektowaga town board to:

1. Re-Examine Cheektowaga Police Department Policy 414 and what factors may be considered in determining reasonable suspicion that a criminal (not civil) offense has occurred,

2. Immediately Cease all non-necessary cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,

3. Enact a policy prohibiting town officers from enforcing federal immigration laws, funneling people into ICE custody, and sharing sensitive information with immigration authorities,

4. Enact a policy ensuring that people in custody are adequately informed of their rights prior to being interviewed by ICE,

5. Enact a policy that prohibits ICE and CBP from entering non-public areas of town property without a judicial warrant,

6. Enact a policy that requires ICE officers to wear identification and prohibits the use of masks.

(#3-#6 are consistent with proposals in New York State Senate Bill S2235A, and the MELT Act)

Thank you for supporting all members of the Cheektowaga community and protecting the constitutional rights of all our residents.

Action 2: Demand that State Attorneys General prosecute crimes committed by ICE agents  

From Rogan’s List 1/14/26

Events in recent weeks have featured brutal reminder after brutal reminder of how totally Trump has hijacked and politicized the Justice Department, and how that is giving ICE the green light to terrorize us.

Last week, at least six career prosecutors in the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney’s office resigned in objection to the department’s obstruction of the state AG’s inquiry into Renee Nicole Good’s murder and pressure from senior DOJ officials to investigate her widow. Furthermore, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche flat-out declared there was no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation and five senior prosecutors announced they would leave the DoJ’s Civil Rights Division.

We cannot simply sit around and wait for a new administration to bring the ICE thugs stalking our streets to justice when they commit crimes. As legal scholars and commentators have highlighted, there is a long history of state and local governments seeking indictments of federal officials for using deadly force on the job, including after Ruby Ridge. Let’s reach out to our state attorneys general to demand they commit to prosecuting any crimes by ICE and CBP agents to the fullest extent of the law where the U.S. Department of Justice won’t step up.

Find contact info for your State Attorney General here. Write your own script or use this one.

As a constituent from [city, zip], I am urging your office to act creatively and aggressively to prosecute any crimes by ICE and CBP agents to the fullest extent of the law. Masked thugs are abusing and attacking people on our streets, and federal law enforcement is covering up and cheering for them. They won’t protect us, so we are counting on you to keep us safe. Thank you.

Action 3: Minnesota is under attack by the government - let's help them fight back 

From  Stand With Minnesota

If you've been paying attention to the news, you know that Minnesota is under occupation by federal agents from ICE and CBP. Not just Minneapolis, and not just people protesting. Across Minnesota, ICE continues to stop, harass, and detain people regardless of their citizenship status. Normal life in Minnesota has been interrupted, as schools have been forced to close or go virtual, as people live in fear of leaving their homes or going to work. Read our testimonies and know what life is like in Minnesota right now.

Minnesotans are organized and activated to respond to this violence. But they need our help.

This link below will take you to a directory of places to donate to which all come from activists on the ground, plugged into the situation https://www.standwithminnesota.com/.  Everything is vetted, with the exception of individual GoFundMe campaigns (not everyone is in our networks, and we don’t want to pick and choose who is worthy of help.)

If you don’t have resources to give, please amplify what you are hearing and seeing about Minnesota, across social media, but also to your networks, friends, and family offline.

Phonebanking

Make calls with the Environmental Voter Project 

The Environmental Voter Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit focused on identifying an estimated 11.2 million environmentalists who did not vote in the 2024 presidential election, and efficiently converting them into a critical mass of consistent voters that will soon be too big for politicians to ignore.

Phonebank with the Environmental Voter Project: https://www.environmentalvoter.org/get-involved

Make calls for Taylor Rehmet who is running for Texas State Senate

There is a runoff for a Texas State Senate seat in District 9 on January 31st, where union leader and machinist Taylor Rehmet is standing for Democrats against conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss. This district is more heavily weighted towards Trump, who won it by 17 in 2024, but Rehmet nearly earned an outright win with 47.6% of the vote on November 4th in a county that’s considered a bellwether.
Organized labor and Blue Texas are all-in for Rehmet, and they’ve got plenty of opportunities for us to join them. We can take shifts to make GOTV calls on Saturdays and Wednesdays here and on Tuesdays and Thursdays here.

Choose your own outrage with 5 Calls

5 Calls has been around since the first Trump term and offers a quick and easy way to make calls to your elected representatives. Enter your zip code or address and pick a topic. Then choose the representative you want to call, make the call, and read the script provided. Calling your congressperson is the most effective way to influence policy. Please check it out here: https://5calls.org/

Darbie Maccubbin
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Actions for the Week of 1/11/26