Buffalo Convention Center Cancels 2-Day DHS Job Fair Over ICE Role

Q: How many local veterans and graduates lost out on federal careers because a convention center feared potential protests?

It is not possible to say how many local veterans, recent graduates, or other job seekers definitively lost out, because no attendance estimate or registration breakdown has been made public. What is clear is that the canceled Buffalo expo was designed as a large in-person DHS hiring event open to veterans, military spouses, people with disabilities, recent graduates, and the general public. It was expected to recruit for jobs across DHS components including TSA, CBP, USCIS, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, ICE, and others, covering fields such as cybersecurity, intelligence, law enforcement, finance, human resources, logistics, immigration services, and transportation security. The available reporting shows the event involved significant on-site hiring steps, including document checks and possible drug testing, fingerprinting, medical screening, and fitness assessments for some positions. That suggests the fair was more than a general information session and may have offered a direct pathway into federal employment for qualified applicants. But the public record does not show how many Western New Yorkers had planned to attend, how many were veterans or graduates, or how many would likely have received tentative offers. So the measurable impact is opportunity lost, not a verified headcount. In short, some local applicants likely lost a near-term hiring opportunity, but the exact number remains unknown based on the evidence now available.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 28

A two-day Department of Homeland Security career expo due to start Tuesday at the Buffalo Convention Center was canceled after venue management said ICE could not be excluded from the event.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said the publicly owned venue should not support recruitment that conflicts with local "welcoming community" values, while officials also cited possible protests.
Convention center CEO Patrick Kaler said management first asked DHS to hold the fair without ICE, then scrapped it when that proved impossible.
Republican legislator Lindsay Lorigo called the move an abuse of authority and said vendors already set up could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
DHS defended ICE as protecting the public and said its large-scale hiring event targeted roles from law enforcement and intelligence to cybersecurity, in a Buffalo area with 25,100 unemployed and a 4.4% jobless rate.