A 56-year-old blind refugee, Nurul Amin Shah Alam, was found dead on a Buffalo street at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, with temperatures around -6 degrees. A medical examination ruled out exposure or homicide as causes of death. Alam, who spoke little English, had been declared missing by his family two days earlier. He was taken into Border Patrol custody last Thursday after leaving the Erie County Sheriff's Department. Border Patrol claimed they dropped him off at a coffee shop several hours later, offering him a ride to a warm and safe location near his last known address. However, Alam's family had moved months earlier, and Border Patrol did not contact his family or lawyer when releasing him. The exact time of his death between his release and the discovery of his body remains unclear. Alam had been arrested by Buffalo Police on assault, trespassing, and weapons possession charges last February. When he got lost on a walk, he ended up on a stranger's porch, and police tasered him for not dropping a curtain rod he was using as a walking cane. Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan described Alam's preventable death as deeply disturbing and a dereliction of duty by Border Patrol. He stated that a vulnerable man, nearly blind and unable to speak English, was left alone on a cold winter night with no known attempt to leave him in a safe, secure location. US Customs and Border Protection must answer for how and why this happened. Alam had lived in Buffalo for 15 months after coming to the USA as a Rohingya refugee from Burma and is survived by his wife and two sons.
