Capital Region Congressman Paul Tonko visited the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia on Monday. It was Tonko's second attempt to visit the facility after he was turned away last year.
The Democrat from the 20th district said he is deeply concerned about the treatment of detainees who had no criminal record.
"I witnessed one individual in blue having handcuffs and ankle cuffs put on him," he said. "When I asked why, given that he has no criminal history based on the blue outfit, I was told it was standard practice for any detainee exiting the facility."
Tonko said staff would not give him information about plans to expand the facility's capacity to hold at least 100 more detainees.
"There's such an aggressive approach to this effort to go even beyond quotas so that [they're] now hitting capacity at these different centers and that is requiring expansion efforts," Tonko said.
After a federal court order was issued, Tonko is one of many members of Congress who were ordered to tour ICE facilities in recent months. Mass. Representative Richard Neal, a fellow Democrat, announced he visited a detention facility in Burlington, Massachusetts on Tuesday.