
Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar who was nearly blind and spoke no English, was found dead on a Buffalo street on 25 February 2026, six days after US Border Patrol agents dropped him at a doughnut shop five miles from his home and notified no one.
Shah Alam had spent 13 months inside the Erie County Holding Centre after a misunderstanding with police led to his arrest in February 2025. He was released on bail on 19 February 2026, following a plea deal that his attorney said was specifically structured to prevent ICE from detaining him.