The Briefing:
- A campaign analysis of data from the Deportation Data Project found 237 people — including 18 children under the age of 12 — were held at ICE’s “Buffalo Hold Room” on the seventh floor of 250 Delaware Avenue between February 2025 and March 2026, with many held beyond the agency’s own short-term detention guidelines.
- Uniland Development, controlled by the Montante family, collects more than $2 million annually from its ICE lease at 250 Delaware Avenue, plus roughly $850,000 from Customs and Border Protection at two additional properties — while also benefiting from millions in public tax subsidies.
- The Evict ICE from 250 Delaware campaign holds weekly demonstrations every Tuesday from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. On September 26, eight protesters were arrested after blocking the intersection in front of the building, and organizers have since formally rechristened the structure the “Montante Detention Center.”
- Uniland says it is “legally and contractually obligated” to honor existing leases — but the current agreement expires in roughly 17 months, and organizers are betting that sustained public pressure reshapes the company’s decision at renewal.
A Downtown Building’s Hidden Floor
From the sidewalk, 250 Delaware Avenue looks indistinguishable from any other glass-and-steel fixture in downtown Buffalo: a coffee shop at street level, corporate logos overhead, visitors in and out. Delaware North — one of the world’s largest hospitality and concessions companies — anchors the building as its global headquarters. But the seventh floor operates on an entirely different logic.
That floor serves as the nerve center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement across nearly all of New York State outside New York City. According to Jennifer Connor, executive director of Justice for Migrant Families, the building’s reach extends well beyond paperwork: “The masked men kidnapping people off the streets — that is orchestrated out of 250 Delaware.”
18 Children. 237 Detainees. One Address.
The numbers propelling the campaign’s urgency come from the Deportation Data Project, a research consortium of academics at UC Berkeley and UCLA that has obtained federal immigration records through public-records requests. Campaign organizers analyzed that data and found 237 people processed through ICE’s “Buffalo Hold Room” between February 2025 and March 2026 — among them 18 children younger than 12. Many were held for multiple days, a span that exceeded the agency’s own short-term holding standards. Former detainees told advocates there are at least two holding cells operating inside the building.
ICE’s Buffalo office did not respond to requests for comment. The Department of Homeland Security has at times disputed the Deportation Data Project’s methodology, though it has not provided independent figures to contradict those numbers when asked.
Who Profits: The Money Behind the Lease
The campaign centers its pressure on two corporations tied to Buffalo’s most prominent families. Uniland Development, controlled by the Montante family, owns and developed the building at 250 Delaware. According to an Investigative Post analysis of federal lease records, Uniland collects more than $2 million a year from ICE for space at 250 Delaware, plus $577,000 annually from U.S. Customs and Border Protection at 300 Airborne Parkway in Cheektowaga and $272,000 annually from CBP at 200 Delaware Avenue — a combined CBP total of roughly $850,000. The building has also benefited from a property tax abatement through the Erie County Industrial Development Agency that cost Buffalo and Erie County $791,000 in 2024 alone…