Erie County just canceled a federal job fair because ICE might recruit there — putting open-borders ideology ahead of public safety and local jobs in a region where unemployment is climbing.

The Buffalo Convention Center axed a two-day Department of Homeland Security career expo set to begin Tuesday after Democratic County Executive Mark Poloncarz urged management to kill the contract over ICE's participation. The expo was open to the public, veterans, military spouses, and recent graduates — recruiting across cybersecurity, intelligence, law enforcement, finance, and transportation security. New York Labor Department data shows 25,100 people unemployed in the Buffalo area in July, with the jobless rate ticking up to 4.4% from 4.3% a year earlier. Ordinary Buffalonians looking for work got shut out so politicians could signal virtue.

Poloncarz said the convention center is a "publicly owned community asset" and shouldn't "support recruitment efforts that are inconsistent with the values we have repeatedly expressed as a welcoming community." Convention center President Patrick Kaler said management first asked DHS to hold the event without ICE. "When it became clear that was not possible, we made the decision to cancel," he said. So a public facility, owned by taxpayers, was closed to a federal agency because local politicians object to enforcing immigration law.

Republican Erie County Legislator Lindsay Lorigo accused Poloncarz of overstepping his authority. "The county executive has completely surpassed his power and authority. This was totally inappropriate for him to call on the management of the convention center to cancel this event," Lorigo said. Vendors who had already set up for the expo now face losses. "They're concerned that they're going to have to close down their business because they can't afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but now they don't know who's going to pay the bill," Lorigo said.

DHS fired back hard. "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?" a DHS spokesperson said, citing a May Harvard CAPS/Harris survey finding 80% of Americans support deporting illegal immigrants who committed crimes.

This isn't isolated. The same week, Governor Kathy Hochul's "Local Cops, Local Crimes Act" took effect statewide, banning 287(g) agreements that let trained local personnel perform federal civil immigration functions under ICE supervision. Hochul boasted on "Morning Joe": "I just banned it. It's against the law now in the state of New York to have these agreements."

DHS warned the ban will backfire. "When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities," a DHS spokesperson said. The department cited five New York cases where noncitizens arrested or convicted for attempted murder, rape, assault, weapons charges, or child endangerment were released despite ICE detainers — all five were later taken into custody by ICE, and one was removed to Mexico.

Fifteen county sheriffs are challenging Hochul's ban in federal court, claiming it unlawfully overrides independently elected sheriffs' authority. The state says Rensselaer was the only one of 12 agencies with a 287(g) agreement that hadn't indicated it would dissolve the partnership.

Hochul's office claims the law doesn't prevent jails from notifying ICE about potentially deportable people. But the message is clear: New York's political class will bend every lever of government to obstruct immigration enforcement — and dare federal authorities to do something about it.

The question now is whether the sheriffs' lawsuit or federal pressure can break the sanctuary apparatus — or whether local politicians keep running interference for illegal immigrants while their own constituents pay the price.