By Isabelle Taft | New York Focus

This story originally appeared in New York Focus , a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here.

For one Western New York man, an ongoing 10-month stint in federal immigration detention began with a suburban ritual: browsing at a mall department store.

On a Saturday evening in February, JMA, as he’s identified in court filings, was looking at belts at a Macy’s in Cheektowaga, outside of Buffalo. A security guard accused him of trying to steal one of the belts; JMA replied that he was shopping and hoping to purchase it, according to a court petition his lawyers filed. The guard called the police, who took him to the station and charged him with petty larceny, a misdemeanor.

A Cheektowaga police

See Full Page