Homicide cops are investigating the tragic death of a man left five miles from his home by Border Patrol agents despite him being blind and speaking no English.
Rohingya refugee Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, was blind in one eye and capable of seeing only a few blurry feet with the other, according to his Legal Aid Bureau attorney, Benjamin Macaluso.
He went missing on February 19 after agents released him from an immigration detention center in Buffalo, New York, and drove him to a Tim Hortons coffee shop in the Black Rock neighborhood—roughly five miles from his home on the city’s East Side.
His family and attorney were given no warning he had been freed, according to Investigative Post.
Buffalo City Hall said officers responded to a “dead body” call on the first block of Perry Street shortly after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the Erie County medical examiner later identified Shah Alam.
City Hall said the medical examiner ruled the death “health related in nature,” and said homicide detectives are examining what happened in the hours after his release.
“I’m devastated, and I’m very frustrated,” said Imran Fazel, an advocate for the local Rohingya community who knows the family. “We never thought anyone would experience anything like this since coming to the United States. It doesn’t make me feel safe in a country like this.”
Mayor Sean Ryan called the death “preventable” and blamed what he described as a “dereliction of duty” by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In a statement on Wednesday, Ryan said a “vulnerable man—nearly blind and unable to speak English—was left alone on a cold winter night,” and demanded answers from the agency.
Buffalo police also bear some responsibility for Shah Alam’s fate.
The refugee, who had arrived in Buffalo from Burma in December 2024, ended up in the Erie County Holding Center in February 2025 after being arrested during a neighborhood walk in which he had been using a purchased curtain rod as a cane.
Sightless in unfamiliar surroundings, Shah Alam wandered onto a stranger’s porch, failed to respond to police commands he could neither see nor hear clearly, and was Tasered and beaten before being taken into custody.
Charges including assault, trespassing, and weapons possession followed—the “weapon” being the curtain rod.
His family held off posting bail for a year, fearing ICE would transfer him to an out-of-state detention facility.
A plea deal finally struck earlier this month cleared the immigration detainer on Shah Alam’s case, paving the way for his release without that risk—only for Border Patrol to collect him anyway, then deposit him in an unfamiliar neighborhood after dark with no one informed of his whereabouts. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
Border Patrol, in a statement to the Daily Beast, claimed Shah Alam “showed no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance”—and described the Tim Hortons as “a warm, safe location near his last known address.” It was, in fact, across town from the neighborhood where Shah Alam and his family live.
The case is the latest in a long-running pattern of callous behavior by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s border goons carrying out President Donald Trump’s deadly mass deportation drive.
On the same day Shah Alam’s body was discovered, the Daily Beast reported on a court filing alleging that CBP agents had threatened migrant children with a dog and a stun gun to force them into signing away their legal right to remain in the United States. One Indigenous Guatemalan boy was allegedly told to sign or face indefinite detention while agents “shouted, cursed, and threatened [him] with a dog and a stun gun,” according to a sworn declaration reviewed by the Beast.
Seperately, it was reported Wednesday that systems engineer Angel Camacho, 43—a Venezuelan asylum seeker with a work permit, Social Security number, U.S.-born children, and no criminal history—had last month been lured to a Border Patrol station in Dania Beach, Florida, for a routine intercom installation job.
But the moment he arrived, Camacho was detained and hauled off to the Everglades detention camp known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” There he spent 30 days before posting $5,000 bail.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS and CBP for comment.
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