03/03/2026
Last week, we were transfixed by the news from Buffalo, New York, that Burmese Rohingya refugee Nurul Amin Shah Alam died days after being abandoned by Border Patrol agents. Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a nearly blind Burmese refugee, died in the freezing streets of downtown Buffalo six days after Border Patrol agents released him from custody without informing his family and left him to find his way home, five miles away.
The Buffalo-based Investigative Post broke the story of Shah Alam with a series of incisive stories. We've been deeply moved at how the people of Buffalo and concerned people around the world have rallied to call for justice for Shah Alam.
Please support his family's fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/standing-with-nurul-amins-family-in-buffalo?link_id=1&can_id=af4bdfb9268e71515cb68d13eafea121&source=email-tell-congress-help-close-the-juntas-scam-centers-in-burma&email_referrer=email_3123529&email_subject=seek-justice-for-shah-alam&&
As we help seek justice for Shah Alam and support his family, let us also redouble our advocacy in support of Burmese refugees in the United States. Please take a few minutes this week to demand that your Members of Congress step up in support of Burmese refugees.
BREAKING: Trump admin gets caught in disgusting lie as ICE tries to argue that the blind refugee they all but killed ASKED THEM to leave him at a closed coffee shop in the freezing cold!
Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a 56-year-old refugee from Myanmar who was nearly blind and spoke almost no English, was released from Erie County jail on February 19, 2026.
Smelling blood, ICE agents immediately took him into custody due to an immigration detainer placed on him during his release process.
They determined he had entered the United States as a refugee in late 2024, and was not amenable to removal. But instead of helping him find his family, they dropped him off at a CLOSED Tim Hortons restaurant a mile from his last address – in freezing weather, wearing only orange jail booties, no phone, NO COAT.
His body was found five days later, four miles away. The area had had light freezing rain, snow, and fog, with temperatures in the low 30s for days.
Border Patrol and Customs claims agents used a translator program, offered a courtesy ride, and Shah Alam “chose” the coffee shop as a “warm, safe location.” They say he showed “no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance.”
That claim is laughable. A nearly blind man who doesn’t speak English “politely asked” to be left at a closed Tim Hortons in a snowstorm? Outside in winter is “warm and safe” for a man from sub-tropical Myanmar in jail booties? Seriously?
Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan wasn’t having it, calling the man’s death “preventable” and “inhumane.” “That is bad policing, but that is also [being] bad human beings,” Ryan said.
This is not a question of competence, but abject cruelty. The Trump administration is so obsessed with mass deportations that they treat vulnerable refugees like trash, tossing them aside without a second thought once they find out they can’t be added to the deportation dossier, then making up a crap story in a pathetic attempt to cover their tracks.
A man who came to this country legally as a refugee, who had a family and a life here, was abandoned in subzero conditions and died. His family didn’t even know where he was.
The administration wants us to believe ICE agent behave like choirboys, but the truth is they left a disabled, confused man to DIE in the cold because he was an immigrant. This is what happens when racism dehumanization becomes policy.
If this story of cruelty and lies makes your blood boil, like and share to demand answers. These are human beings, not numbers.
