After searching for five days, a partially blind refugee was found dead on Tuesday, only five miles from where U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents dropped him off after releasing him from custody. The discovery raises questions surrounding the conditions in which immigrant detainees are released from federal custody over a year into President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
Nurul Amin Shah Alam came to the U.S. as a refugee in December 2024, as a member of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority, but was arrested last February in Buffalo, New York, according to The Washington Post. Body cam footage reveals law enforcement officers confronting and using Tasers on Shah Alam, who was trespassing and using a curtain rod as a walking stick. He was then arrested for allegedly trespassing and biting law enforcement officers; he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors "in the interest of justice," according to a district attorney who noted that a felony conviction would've led to Shah Alam's mandatory deportation, reports The Post. With his sentencing set for next month, Shah Alam posted bond on February 19, and the Erie County Sheriff's Office transferred him to Border Patrol custody.
