Nearly blind Burmese refugee abandoned by US Border Patrol found dead in Buffalo

Nurul Amin Shah Alam had been missing since February 19 after Department of Homeland Security agents dropped him off miles away from home 

New York, NY — The Asian American Federation is heartbroken and outraged to learn about the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam—a 56-year-old Muslim Rohingya refugee, father of two, and survivor of genocide—who was abandoned by US Border Patrol officers in Buffalo. Shah Alam was nearly blind and could not communicate in English. Yet agents released him without notifying his family or lawyer, and left him miles away from his home to find his own way back. Shah Alam never did. 

Shah Alam had been in the Erie County Holding Center for nearly a year after he was arrested for mistakenly walking onto a neighbor’s porch. He was using a curtain rod as a walking stick, and police responded by tasing and beating a visually-impaired man who could not understand their commands. 

His family did not post bail out of fear ICE could detain him upon release. They reached a plea deal earlier this month to ensure that would not happen. 

When Shah Alam was released, no one told his family or attorney. They spent days looking for him over the weekend in freezing temperatures, only for his body to be found five days later. He was four miles from where Border Patrol left him.

Shah Alam’s death is not an accident. This was negligence and failure at every level of government.

Shah Alam should still be alive today. 

We join his family in calling for an immediate, independent investigation by the New York Attorney General into the circumstances of his death and the actions of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. 

This tragedy demonstrates why New York urgently needs the New York For All Act. No family should be forced to choose between keeping a loved one in jail or losing them to deportation. Cooperation between local agencies and federal immigrant enforcement is killing New Yorkers. This must end.