The state attorney general is investigating whether local police collaborated with federal agents in an immigration enforcement action that led to the detention of three roofers.
Get more Investigative Post reporting in your Google results.
Agents tackle and taser Ramon Pablo-Vivanco in North Tonawanda. Video recorded by Diego Chavez.
North Tonawanda police worked alongside U.S. Border Patrol agents last week in the arrest of three Mexican migrants, one of whom was repeatedly struck and tasered by the federal officers before he was handcuffed.
The case stands to be an early test of new state laws that restrict how local police can interact with federal immigration authorities. Advocates for the three men say they believe North Tonawanda police violated the new laws. But the police chief said any appearance of cooperation is merely a coincidence.
Attorney General Letitia James’ office confirmed it received a complaint about the matter and is conducting a review.
New York City-based immigration attorney Jonathan Langer is suing for the men’s release, arguing they were detained unlawfully and without warrants, according to federal court filings. At least one of the men had entered the United States legally with a visa, according to his lawsuit. The men’s employer told Investigative Post they believed the men had proper authorization to work in the country.
“If [North Tonawanda police] coordinated with [the Department of Homeland Security] that may violate the new law,” Langer said. “It’s unclear how New York can or does enforce the new law.”
Interviews with witnesses, police and other sources, along with video and audio recordings, stitch together a portrait of what happened.
The three men worked for Milco Roofing and Construction, based in Niagara County, a firm that specializes in metal roofs and pole barns. Around 7 p.m. Wednesday, a crew of four packed up a white pickup truck and left a job site on Jesella Drive. Shortly after the men pulled onto Nash Road, a North Tonawanda police officer initiated a traffic stop, alleging the driver had failed to use a turn signal.
Shortly after the men pulled onto Nash Road, a North Tonawanda police officer initiated a traffic stop, alleging the driver had failed to use a turn signal.
Border Patrol agents were on scene almost immediately after.
“Are you legal or illegal? Are you legal or illegal?” agents began asking the four men inside the truck, according to a witness, Diego Chavez. A member of the work crew and a U.S. permanent resident, Chavez was not arrested and recorded the encounter. In an interview, he said agents threatened to break the truck’s windows before dragging one man out of the backseat.
A video Chavez recorded showed agents taser the man before holding him down at the ankles, kneeling on his back and pushing his head into the ground.
“Don’t move!” an agent shouted in broken Spanish.
“Get on the ground now!” another agent can be heard saying in English.
Chavez then instructed his coworkers not to resist and pleaded with the agents to stop hitting them.
“Leave them alone. Don’t hit him, don’t hit him!” Chavez said.
The video also shows an agent arresting a man in the front seat of the truck, pushing his torso forward and twisting his arms behind his back.
North Tonawanda Police Chief Keith Glass told Investigative Post that the third man, the driver, attempted to run but that the police officer, Noah Fox, chased and apprehended him. Border Patrol then took custody.
Two of the three men arrested, including the driver, have been transferred to ICE custody and are jailed at the Batavia detention center. The third, according to a federal database, remains in Border Patrol custody at the agency’s Niagara Falls station.
Janna Garcia, who owns Milco Roofing and Construction with her husband, said she found the agents’ treatment of her employees disturbing and reported it to the Attorney General’s office. Garcia said she was aware of the new state laws restricting local police from working with federal immigration agencies and felt that the traffic stop violated those new rules.
“Once [the officer] had them stopped, Border Patrol surrounded the vehicle,” she said. “The excessive force that was used, and the way the whole thing was executed is why I filed a complaint.”
Glass, in an interview, insisted that his officer, Fox, did not call Border Patrol to the scene.
“I’m assuming they were monitoring our radio traffic,” Glass said. “They just showed up as a secondary car to back my officer up. All we did was perform a traffic stop. That’s it.”
A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said agents had been patrolling the area and showed up to assist.
“Our agents patrolled through and assisted. They were not contacted by the NTPD,” the spokesperson said. “U.S. Border Patrol agents routinely work alongside federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to enhance public safety, provide critical assistance, and support law enforcement operations throughout the area.”
Collusion or coincidence?
How closely North Tonawanda police worked with Border Patrol last week remains an open question. The police department has described the two agencies being on scene together as a coincidence. Members of the roofing crew have their doubts.
Chavez and Jesus Garcia, who owns Milco Roofing and Construction along with his wife, told Investigative Post that a North Tonawanda police officer monitored their job site all day, driving past in a patrol car.
“The first time was around 9 a.m., and then like 11 a.m., then the third time was around two-something, 2:30 p.m.,” Jesus Garcia said. “He passed by like four or five times. The last time he stopped for three, four seconds, and I believe he got the license plate from the truck.”
The crew felt like they were being watched.
“He was just waiting for us,” Chavez said.
Glass, the chief, denied that. He said the officer had been assigned to patrol that part of the city that day. He added that Border Patrol had informed him agents would be operating in the area that day — information he passed along to the officer.
At the end of the work day, the crew packed up their truck. Minutes later, Chavez said, the North Tonawanda officer was behind them and followed them for about a mile. Glass said the officer believed the two men sitting in the backseat weren’t wearing seat belts, and that he pulled them over after the driver failed to use a turn signal.
After the driver, Salvio Martinez Gutierrez, pulled over, the officer approached his window and asked for his license. He handed the officer his learner’s permit. According to the Customs and Border Protection spokesperson, patrolling agents then arrived to assist.
The agents then took over the scene. Chavez, sitting in the back seat, called Garcia, who could hear over the phone what the Border Patrol agents said.
“I hear somebody saying, ‘Let’s smash the windows,’ or something like that,” Jesus Garcia said. “‘Let’s break the window and pull them out.’”
Glass, the police chief, said the driver attempted to run away. Fox, the police officer, gave chase for about 20 seconds, Glass said, before apprehending him and bringing him back to the truck.
Meanwhile, agents opened one of the back doors and pulled another man, Ramon Pablo-Vivianco, out of the truck.
According to Chavez, the agents punched Pablo-Vivianco and deployed their tasers. In one of the videos recorded by Chavez, he can be heard screaming. The video also recorded the trademark clicking of the taser, and an agent is visible pointing it at Pablo-Vivianco while he was prone on the ground.
In the front seat, another agent can be seen pushing Rodrigo Pablo-Vivianco forward while twisting his arms behind his back.
Chavez said he felt “super scared, because they were super aggressive.”
Glass said North Tonawanda police had nothing to do with the arrests.
“Officer Fox wrote a couple, I think three, traffic citations. He gave them the tickets, and we were done, and Border Patrol took over from there,” he said. “Border Patrol showed up to back him because they were in the area already.”
After arresting the three men, another agent made a call to check Chavez’s status and confirmed he was a lawful permanent resident, according to another video recording. The agent then ordered Chavez to drive the truck home or he would be arrested.
Aftermath
After the arrests Wednesday, Janna Garcia told Investigative Post she spent three days searching for the three men who’d been arrested. Two of them eventually showed up in Batavia, while one was missing. His cell phone, which had been turned off, eventually pinged at the Niagara Falls Border Patrol station. A federal database confirmed that he was being held there.
She said she then hired Langer. The lawsuits argue the men are owed bond hearings, since they’d never been arrested previously and have not been seen by an immigration judge.
Janna Garcia said the arrests leave her company with just two workers — her husband and Chavez — to complete work that their company has lined up through the spring.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletters
The experience has also brought back memories of a run-in with Border Patrol she and her husband had 16 years ago. In 2010, she said, the couple was mistakenly targeted by Niagara County Sheriff’s deputies and transferred to Border Patrol custody as a result. Back then, she said, her husband wasn’t yet a U.S. citizen, though he is now.
“Them overstepping their boundaries has happened a lot. And we’ve been on the receiving end of it,” she said.
She added: “I realize Border Patrol is here for a reason. They have a job to do, and I get that. But their brutality and the way they go about things is completely wrong.”
Investigative Post reporter Adam Smith-Perez assisted with Spanish translations.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a statement from Customs and Border Protection.
posted 8 hours ago – October 13, 2026