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A nearly blind refugee from Myanmar missing since his release from a Buffalo, N.Y., jail into the custody of U.S. Border Patrol has been found dead on a downtown street, city authorities have said.
Police officers in the western New York city located the body of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, on Tuesday evening, a Buffalo Police Department spokesperson said.
Shah Alam had been missing since Feb. 19, when U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a coffee shop kilometres from his home following his release from a county jail, where he had spent much of the last year awaiting trial on criminal charges that resulted in a misdemeanor plea deal.
Homicide detectives are investigating the circumstances of Shah Alam’s death, the spokesperson said.
Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan, a Democrat, said in a statement Wednesday that Shah Alam’s death was preventable and the result of “inhumane” decision-making by federal immigration authorities.
“A vulnerable man — nearly blind and unable to speak English — was left alone on a cold winter night with no known attempt to leave him in a safe, secure location,” Ryan said. “That decision from U.S. Customs and Border Protection was unprofessional and inhumane.”
In a statement to Buffalo’s NBC affiliate WGRZ, a CBP spokesperson said agents dropped Shah Alam off at a coffee shop after agents determined he had entered the country as a refugee and could not be deported. Shah Alam “showed no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance,” it said.
“Border Patrol agents offered him a courtesy ride, which he chose to accept to a coffee shop, determined to be a warm, safe location near his last known address, rather than be released directly from the Border Patrol station,” the agency said.
The Erie County District Attorney’s Office said Shah Alam was arrested a year ago following an incident that resulted in minor injuries to two Buffalo police officers. Shah Alam was released on bail this month after he had agreed to a plea deal, the district attorney’s office said.
Following Shah Alam’s arrest, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued an immigration detainer, a formal request to take custody of a non-citizen after his scheduled release from criminal detention.
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Family not aware he’d been released
In response to that immigration detainer, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office contacted U.S. Border Patrol prior to Shah Alam’s release, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said. Mohamad Faisal, one of Shah Alam’s children, said in a text message that his father’s arrest a year ago was due to a misunderstanding with police officers.
Shah Alam, who did not speak English, had been out for a walk and had been using a curtain rod he purchased as a walking stick, Faisal said. Shah Alam got lost and walked onto the property of a Buffalo resident who called the police, Faisal said.
When Shah Alam did not understand police commands to drop his curtain rod, they arrested him, his son said.
Upon his release last week, “Nobody told me or my family or attorney where my dad was dropped off,” Faisal said.
A Buffalo-area immigration lawyer told WGRZ that federal officials are not required to notify families when they release adults from custody.
As U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze most foreign aid for 90 days reverberates around the world, CBC’s Salimah Shijvi looks at how those cuts are making life even harder for persecuted Rohingya refugees inside Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh — the world’s largest refugee camp.
The family are Arakan Rohingya refugees, he said.
The CBP statement to Buffalo media indicated that Shah Alam entered the U.S. as a refugee on Dec. 24, 2024.
Myanmar has denied accusations of genocide related to a 2017 offensive led by military forces that forced at least 730,000 Rohingya from their homes. Many have toiled since then at a camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where some human rights activists say conditions have worsened in the wake of humanitarian aid cuts implemented by Donald Trump’s second presidential administration.
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