Bills Stadium Workers Detained By Federal Authorities, According to Union Leader

There has been no shortage of controversy throughout the construction of the Buffalo Bills’ new Highmark Stadium.

Fires have broken out, graffiti has spread throughout the stadium, and now, members of the crew working on the new building have been detained by federal immigration authorities.

According to a report from WKBW, five stadium workers were detained, information that was released to them by Timothy Benes, the business manager of SMART Local 71, a union of 500-plus sheet metal workers.

The details

The new Buffalo Bill’s stadium looms over the current Highmark Stadium on May 27, 2025. | Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The television station’s report included information that two of the five workers were detained outside the Walmart Supercenter in Hamburg on Friday, Mar. 6, while three more were detained outside of a motel in Hamburg on Saturday, Mar. 7. The report added that the workers were Venezuelan immigrants who are from Texas.

Benes expressed the union’s frustration, stating the “highly skilled tradespeople” traveled to Orchard Park and were in Western New York for just a week before their detainment. Each detainee, all men, was being held at a federal detention facility in Batavia, NY at the time of the report.

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection told 7 News that the men are in the U.S. illegally,” read the report. “They said two of the men crossed the border illegally and three overstayed their visas. Now they’re awaiting removal hearings.”

Benes told WKBW that the union plans to help the men obtain legal representation, while Assemblyman Jon Rivera (D-159th District) said the men “should be released immediately” as he has been told they have their “documentation in line.”

The latest hubbub is just another chapter in the long saga of the Bills’ stadium build.

Inside job

Bills construction — Construction crews install the first panels on the stadium exterior as work continues on the Buffalo Bills new stadium, across the street from their current home at Highmark Stadium, in Orchard Park, NY Thursday, July 10, 2025. | Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The most recent controversy involving the new Highmark stadium came in mid-February, when a few members of the construction crew admitted to having vandalized the stadium grounds by producing what was described as pornographic graffiti. Things ended with a few workers confessing to the crime, causing a week-long delay in work on the project.

As a result of the vandalism, the company in charge of the stadium’s construction, Gilbane-Turner, offered a $100,000 reward for information that would help lead to the identification of those involved. It’s unclear if the reward directly led to the closing of the investigation into the mischief.

Despite all of the chaos that has surrounded its construction, Highmark Stadium remains on track to be completed on time this summer and ready for the Bills’ Week 1 matchup of the 2026 season.