Federal officials want to create a small-scale, 24/7 immigrant detention facility at the federal courthouse in downtown Rochester, according to documents reviewed by WXXI News.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection was to be awarded the project as soon as Friday.
That directive and deadline is attributed to Edward Forst, administrator of the General Services Administration, which oversees federal property. Forst's decision apparently caught local officials off guard, and was made despite concerns and objections raised by federal court administrators and others in the building, records show.
The Kenneth B. Keating Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on State Street houses federal courts — but not immigration courts — as well as a U.S. Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Marshals Service and a daycare. The plan, documents show, would be to move border patrol into Keating and create three holding cells, able to house detainees overnight and potentially for several days.
Officials are eying the former U.S. Post Office space on the first floor, records show, and outlined a $5 million plan to relocate there in its fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, authored in 2024 under the Biden administration. But the idea has raised security concerns from others in the building. Those concerns focused on those who might be drawn to the building to protest, visit, or with bad intentions, sources said. Some judges have their chambers on the same floor, and the daycare is one level down.
"This proposal would turn a civic building — in the heart of our community — into a site of detention, fear, and division," Monroe County Executive Adam Bello said in a statement released Friday evening.
Border patrol currently has its operations center in Irondequoit, but its lease expires next month. That facility is undersized, lacks sufficient parking and, according to the earlier budget justification, "is located in a high crime area" on Pattonwood Drive.
"The current location doesn’t meet operational needs, lacks proper processing and detention space thus presenting a clear and present safety risk for agents and professional staff," the agency wrote at the time, envisioning construction could be completed in late 2026.
Border Patrol previously looked at the Keating Federal Building in 2021, records show, indicating at that people might only be detained for a few hours and released on their own recognizance. That, too, had raised concern from court officials and others in the building.
In a statement, a GSA spokesperson said that the agency “is committed to working with all of our partner agencies to meet their workspace needs. GSA remains focused on supporting this administration’s goal of optimizing the federal footprint, and providing the best workplaces for our federal agencies to meet their mission.”
The agency did not say whether the project or lease was, indeed, awarded Friday, nor address questions about how or if they addressed safety and other concerns, whether other local facilities have been or are being considered, or a timetable for buildout. Border patrol did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Democratic elected leaders have fired back at the proposal.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both of whom have offices in the building, criticized the move in statements released after this story published.
Schumer called the plan “outrageous and absurd," while demanding "immediate answers on what exactly DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and Border Patrol are planning, and an opportunity for public review and input."
Gillibrand similarly called for "transparency and accountability from the institutions involved," adding: "My constituents and area stakeholders have expressed grave concern about conditions in DHS’ immigration detention facilities and the suitability of downtown Rochester for such a facility.”
Congressman Joe Morelle, D-Irondequoit, also weighed in, criticizing the "secret" process, and said President Donald Trump has "a pattern of creating and escalating combustible situations and the forcing communities to deal with the fallout." Rochester Mayor Malik Evans soon followed with his own statement, saying: "To attempt this clandestine repurposing of this location without local input is inexcusable."
State Assembly member Sarah Clark, D-Rochester, worked in the building for 20 years in the offices of then-Sen. Hillary Clinton and, more recently, Sen. Gillibrand. Clark said her children were in the daycare for 10 of those years. She called the project "terrifying," questioning the rationale for bringing added attention to the building.
For parents, "security has been a concern off and on. This is going to take it to a whole new level," Clark said, noting the charged political discourse and activity surrounding stepped-up federal immigration enforcement.
