Protestors gathered outside a popular neighborhood restaurant in the Elmwood village Thursday evening in response to arrests made by Homeland Security agents earlier that day.
Protestors said four individuals who work at Aguacates, a Mexican bar and grill at 765 Elmwood Ave., were detained by Homeland Security agents around 10 a.m. Thursday.
BTPM NPR was unable to contact the owner of the restaurant, but two sources familiar with the situation confirmed this information.
Aguacates was closed Thursday night, with a post on their social media page claiming it was for "maintenance."
The protest of around 50 people was organized by members of various community and activist organizations in the Buffalo area. Drew Ludwig explained why he joined those gathered.
"We don't want people to be deported," Ludwig said. "We especially don't want good neighbors - citizens that are feeding us and doing good work and have families - to be taken away. This restaurant ended up closed for the rest of the day because the federal government came and took away workers."
It is not yet clear why the individuals were detained and we are unable to confirm names of the detainees. BTPM NPR has reached out to Buffalo’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office to learn more, but has not yet heard back.
BTPM NPR has seen multiple videos taken by neighbors showing Homeland Security agents present at the intersection of Elmwood Ave. and Auburn Ave. that morning and making one arrest.
Two videos taken just after 10 a.m. Thursday by separate bystanders, show seven individuals who appear to be agents involved in detaining an individual. At least two of those agents are wearing vests marked “Police HSI” which stands for Homeland Security Investigations - a branch of ICE.
The videos both start at the point where agents are seen restraining a male on the ground before placing him in handcuffs and standing up. The officers then walk the man across the street to the 7-Eleven parking lot on Elmwood Ave. and place him in an unmarked silver SUV parked there.
Christa Penner owns a business on Elmwood Ave. She witnessed that arrest and another person being detained by the same agents.
"We saw several law enforcement agents chasing somebody down in the parking lot across the street. We saw them arrested on the ground in front of our store. And then we saw a second person grabbed by the same agents, arrested and thrown on the ground next door to us as well," Penner said.
"They took them into vehicles. There was a surprising amount of undercover vehicles in the neighborhood," she added.
The videos confirm this: the officers get into at least five separate unmarked vehicles parked either in the 7-Eleven parking lot, or on the street close to the restaurant.
Another video captures the moment the agents drove away, with one agent leaning out of the driver's-side window to say "you're welcome," to onlookers as he pulls out of the 7-Eleven lot.
This is not the first time Homeland Security has made arrests linked to the address now occupied by Aguacates. In 2016, under a different name - Agave - the restaurant was raided by ICE and three men were charged with harboring illegal aliens at four local Mexican restaurants in the area, including the Elmwood address.
Agave closed before Aguacates opened at the same location the following February according to WKBW reporting at the time. It is not clear if Aguacates is under the same ownership as the previous business.
ICE arrests by the Buffalo field office - which covers most of New York’s 62 counties - nearly doubled in the first seven months of 2025 compared to all of 2024 according to an analysis by New York Focus.
This story will be updated as more information emerges.
