Steuben County constituents packed the legislative chambers in Bath last week to voice their concerns about the sheriff’s office working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The standing room only crowd showed up because of an item on the meeting’s agenda: the county’s contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to house federal detainees at the Steuben County jail.
That could include ICE detainees as well as federal prisoners held by the marshal's service. It is not clear whether the new contract includes ICE detainees, although the 2026 and 2011 contracts marked ICE as an “other authorized agency.” The 2011 contract also states that federal detainees include people “who are awaiting a hearing on their immigration status or deportation.”
During a special committee meeting ahead of the vote in the full legislature meeting, Steuben County Sheriff Jim Allard said the jail is not an ICE detention center and will not house any civil immigration case detainees.
Allard said the ICE rider allows the county an opportunity to bring in revenue through the U.S. Marshals Service if the federal agency starts bringing the county detainees who have been criminally indicted for immigration violations.
“It's whoever gets arraigned and indicted at a federal level, then the Marshal Service contacts us and they bring them here,” said Allard.
Civil immigration case enforcement is defined as “any action taken by an ICE officer or agent to apprehend, arrest, interview, or search an alien in connection with enforcement of administrative immigration violations,” according to a memo from ICE acting Director Todd Lyons last May.
The memo listed those targeted as including: “National security or public safety threats; Specific aliens with criminal convictions; Gang members; Aliens who have been ordered removed from the United States but have failed to depart; and/or Aliens who have re-entered the country illegally after being removed.”
“The folks that come in and say, I get a work visa, and I come in and it's a six month work visa, then I don't leave, and I stay for six months and I raise a family, those are the administrative ones,” said Allard. “Those are the ones that we have nothing to do with, and those are the ones where they get picked up, and then again, go to a detention center, not to us, to a federal detention center, and they get adjudicated at that point there, and whatever determination is made.”
WSKG reached out to the Steuben County sheriff’s office for clarification about the distinction between civil and criminal federal ICE detainees housed at the jail and did not hear back.
Under the new U.S. Marshals agreement with Steuben County, the federal government will pay the county $130 per day per detainee.This is an increase of $30 from the previous agreement, according to the sheriff.
The contract drew the attention of many people from around the county, where concerns are growing on the heels of nationwide reports about the tactics used by ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers in the field.
Town of Cameron resident and environmental activist, Wayne Wells started the public comment portion with a moment of silence to honor two Americans shot and killed in Minnesota last month by immigration enforcement agents.
“Two minutes of silence reflection to honor slain Minnesotans Renee Goode and Alex Pretti in an act of ICE criminality for what America is becoming under Trump.”
Mary Lisi, from the town of Bradford, said officials are naive to think what’s happening in other states will not happen in Steuben County.
“I would love it if this county would reject the leg [of] the arm of federal law enforcement called Ice,” said Lisi “We are all afraid. And as I said, we can't be naive to think that this isn't going to happen to our family or friends.”
Nearly three dozen local elected officials and residents from the cities and towns of Corning, Painted Post and Erwin to Caton, Beaver Dams, Hammondsport and Cohocton stepped up to the podium for public comment.
Each person urged the legislature to strike down or table the U.S. Marshals’s service contract and rescind two 287(g) agreements between the county and ICE.
In June, the county legislature passed a resolution allowing the sheriff’s department to enter into two Memorandum of Agreements (MOA) with ICE: the Warrant Service Officer program and Task Force Model.
The task force agreement allows local law enforcement limited immigration authority during routine police duties out in the community.
The Warrant Service Officer program allows ICE to train local law enforcement officers to serve administrative immigration warrants in their agency’s jail.
Town of Erwin resident Bill Mattingly wants the legislature to rescind the two agreements with ICE due to what he said is the Trump administration's “demonstrated contempt for the law.”
“The battle for our democracy is being fought right here, right now,” said Mattingly. “Do we really want to invite these federal agencies to Steuben County and sign cooperative agreements with them? Do we want our deputies, whose salaries are paid by Steuben County residents to be under the direct control of ice. That's what the contract says. I urge you to stand with democracy and rescind our agreements.“
City of Corning resident Lynn Ricotta argued that the county participating in a contract that has been in place for many years does not address the morality of the issue.
“That's the same reasoning that they used to continue Jim Crow laws and segregation,” said Ricotta. “We've always done it this way. Why shouldn't we just keep doing it? This should not be a money issue. It's a moral issue. Working with ice in any capacity is complicity with the Trump administration in its goal of making this country a white only country, and that's what it boils down to.”
Others voiced issues with a lack of transparency from the county with the public about the impending marshals service contract renewal and preceding 287(g) ICE agreements.
“Bringing this resolution to the legislature only days before the contract must either be signed or approved or renegotiated, is not transparency, and it's not respectful, I think, to you as legislators and to the public,” said Marshall Hyde, city of Corning resident and Corning City Councilmember. “I certainly hope that my representatives from Corning will vote no. At the very least, I hope that you all would vote to table this agreement for further consideration.”
After nearly 90 minutes of public comment, the contract resolution passed thirteen to four.
Republican legislators Fred Potter and Michael Volino voted against the agreement, along with Democrats Joe Tobia and Deborah Shannon.
Democratic Corning Legislator Hilda Lando, who voted against the county’s 287(g) agreements with ICE last summer, voted yes on the marshals service agreement.
“It's still a contract to house prisoners. We're going to get them anyway, right? So we might as well as we’re getting paid now, We will continue to get paid with the sheriff saying we don't have to take ICE detainees,” said Lando. “That's what I needed to here. And I've asked him that before. He can say no, send them somewhere else. They don't belong here.“
Lando said she doesn’t have the votes to try to rescind those 287(g) agreements.
Republican Kelly Fitzpatrick, the chair of the legislature, said this particular issue had momentum from the public at large.
“It's understandable momentum, because it does feel like ice is out there doing whatever they want without regard to the rule of law,” said Fitzpatrick. “And are we really safe? Are we really being taken care of? And in my mind, I trust the sheriff to put together his agreements. I trust him to monitor these agreements. I also trust him if he says we're not going to take any ICE detainees, I trust him that we're not going to do that. And are we going to follow up on that? Absolutely.“
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced a bill last week that would ban local law enforcement agencies from entering into any 287(g) agreements with ICE and void all current ones.
WSKG reached out to the sheriff for a reaction to the news and did not hear back.
We also reached out for a statement from Fitzpatrick on the governor’s proposed bill and did not hear back from the county.
The county’s U.S. Marshals Service agreement is in effect for three years beginning Feb. 1, 2026.