A refugee from Myanmar missing since his release from jail into the custody of U.S. Border Patrol was found dead by Buffalo police officers late Tuesday, authorities reported.
Border Patrol agents are accused of dropping off Nurul Amin Shah Alam, who was mostly blind and unable to communicate in English, at a Tim Hortons restaurant in Buffalo last Thursday without informing anyone they had done so, according to a prior news report.
The Erie County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the Erie County Holding Center, said it followed proper procedure in handling Shah Alam’s release from custody.
However, Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane late Wednesday said his office expected Shah Alam to remain in jail until his sentencing next month in a case involving injuries suffered by two Buffalo police officers when they arrested Shah Alam in February 2025.
People are also reading…
Local and federal elected officials called for an investigation into what led to the man's death.
Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a refugee from Myanmar, was found dead late Tuesday several days after Border Patrol agents are accused of dropping him off at a Tim Hortons on Niagara Street.
B district officers found Shah Alam after responding to a 911 call about a dead body on Perry Street, near KeyBank Center, shortly after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Timothy Richards, a Buffalo police spokesperson, said in a statement.
Shah Alam, 56, was identified by the Erie County Medical Examiner on Wednesday and authorities notified his family, Richards said.
The medical examiner conducted an autopsy and determined the cause of death was health-related, the department spokesperson said, while exposure and homicide were ruled out as causes.
Buffalo police homicide detectives are investigating the circumstances and time frame of events that led up to his death, Richards said.
Shah Alam was reported missing last Thursday. He was mostly blind and didn't speak English, according to a missing person poster circulated by friends and family, with mobility and other health problems. He also is not able to use a phone.
As previously reported by Investigative Post, Shah Alam was last seen when U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a Tim Hortons on Niagara Street. His body was found five days later about 4 miles from the restaurant.
Keane, the district attorney, in a news release elaborated on the timeline of Shah Alam's case following his arrest by Buffalo police on Feb. 15, 2025, and booking at the Holding Center the next day.
An immigration detainer, which requires a person in custody to be held for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release in order to be turned over to immigration authorities, was filed at the time, Keane said.
A grand jury indicted Shah Alam on felony assault, burglary and criminal mischief charges, the DA's Office continued, but Keane "exercised his prosecutorial discretion to offer a reduced plea in the interest of justice," adding that felony charges would lead to mandatory deportation.
Shah Alam spent nearly a year in the Holding Center until he pleaded guilty Feb. 9 to two misdemeanors and was offered $5,000 bail, Keane continued. The DA's Office believed Shah Alam would not be released from custody until after his sentencing, according to the news release.
"Our office was not aware of his release until yesterday," Keane said Wednesday. "We have been informed that the federal immigration detainer remained in place at the time his bond was posted on Thursday, February 19, 2026. My office will move to dismiss the charges upon receipt of his death certificate."
The Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that bond was posted for Shah Alam on Feb. 19, precipitating his release.
"Per Erie County Sheriff's Office standard practice, the agency that lodged the detainer was informed of Mr. Shah Alam's pending release. U.S. Border Patrol arrived at the Holding Center prior to the finalization of Mr. Shah Alam's release from Erie County Sheriff's Office custody," the Sheriff's Office statement said. "We did not delay — nor do we ever delay — the release process based on a detainer."
Border Patrol acknowledged a request for comment from The Buffalo News late Wednesday afternoon but did not provide a reply.
In his 2025 arrest, Shah Alam was taken into custody after a Tonawanda Street resident called police to report someone had entered her fenced-in rear yard and damaged her shed, according to a police report.
Shah Alam was found by officers holding two long black poles and, when he refused to drop them, was Tased by them. The Tasers did not have an effect on Shah Alam, according to the report, and he continued advancing on the officers.
As they struggled to take Shah Alam into custody, police reported, he bit and scratched the officers. Shah Alam, who police say smelled of alcohol, was charged with assault, menacing, trespass, criminal mischief and other counts, according to the report.
Shah Alam's attorneys told Investigative Post that the detective who originally handled the missing persons case for Buffalo police closed it for several hours, even though the Shah Alam had not been found. The case was reopened as of Monday afternoon, Police Commissioner Craig Macy told the outlet.
The Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, which represents Shah Alam, published a statement to social media to share sadness about their client's death.
"Due to our ethical obligations, we are unable to offer any comment at this time," the firm's statement said.
News of Shah Alam's death sparked significant community reaction, especially from those who spread widely the news that Shah Alam was missing reacted to his death on social media Wednesday.
"The circumstances surrounding his death are alarming and raise questions about the level of humanity exhibited by those involved," said Mohammed Osman Shimul, an active member of Buffalo's Bengali community. "His absence will be deeply felt by all who knew him, as well as the entire Buffalo community."
Rep. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon calling Shah Alam's death a "horrific and heartbreaking tragedy."
"Mr. Alam should be alive and with his loved ones today. Instead, after days of fear and uncertainty, his family is now grieving an unimaginable loss," Kennedy said. "There must be a full and transparent investigation at the local, state and federal levels. The public and Mr. Alam’s family deserve answers immediately.”
Common Councilmember David A. Rivera called the early details of Shah Alam's death "concerning and alarming."
"Tensions were already up with what's happening nationally and even locally," Rivera told The News on Wednesday, referring to another federal agency. "People are suspicious. They are fearful of ICE."
Rivera awaited further information about the series of events that preceded Shah Alam's death, but he stressed that the steps the city takes next are crucial.
"We have to be extra careful," Rivera said. "We need a thorough investigation and to follow leads wherever they go."
Continuing coverage: ICE activity in the Buffalo Niagara region
The Trump administration’s intensified raids and arrests have shaken the immigrant community in Western New York. Among restaurant workers, farm workers, volunteers and even international students are afraid to go to work or even out in public. You can read The Buffalo News' stories about current immigration enforcement policies and their effect on the Buffalo Niagara region below.
Citing "unspeakable acts of violence" committed by federal immigration officers, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday proposed a state law to ban local police across New York from working with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on immigration raids.
Several restaurants, cafés and shops closed Friday to protest the Trump administration's intensified ICE activity. The strike calls for "no work," "no school" and "no shopping."
Gary Kabeya, an asylum-seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on the West Side on Halloween, several days before he was about to start a job with UPS.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been denying and returning books delivered to Batavia detainees since unveiling a new mail-handling policy in July. A spokesperson said it's for safety, but activists say it violates their First Amendment rights.
Not everybody stays the course in federal court when challenging detention. Several detainees who filed petitions for release so far this year withdrew them, even early in the court process, after deciding to leave the country without a further fight.
Thomas Homan, the president's border czar, has said that Trump has secured the U.S. border "to its highest level." But in communities where the arrests are being carried out, questions immediately follow regarding whether they are worth the cost.
Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo of the U.S District Court, Western District of New York, ruled that federal authorities must release Oliver Eloy Mata Velasquez from the Buffalo Federal Immigration Detention Center while his lawsuit is being considered.
“A lot of immigrants have been very frightened by what they are hearing in the news,” said a Buffalo immigration attorney. “And there is just a lot of fear out there in the community.”
The Trump administration’s intensified immigration raids and arrests have shaken the local agricultural community, which is dependent on migrant labor. “No farm would survive without them," said a Western New York fruit farmer.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo became the most recent federal judge to weigh in with concerns over how U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement treated someone targeted for deportation.
Caleb Vitello has been removed from a top post at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, after serving in the job for one month.
Two Buffalo attorneys raised questions about the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, after saying their client was arrested and sent to an immigration detention facility despite having no record of violence or criminal activity.
The 46-year-old University at Buffalo grad, a high-ranking official of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, was recently named by Trump as the acting director of that agency.
The four men taken into custody, including two from Honduras, one from Mexico and one from Ecuador were turned over to ICE's Removal and Enforcement Operations.
The 13 F-1 visa holders had their records in the Exchange Visitor Information System "unexpectedly terminated" in the last week by ICE's Student and Exchange Visitor Program, the university said in a news release.
A judge's order in Buffalo kept an Iranian woman off a deportation flight to Iran, but a Texas court will decide what happens next.
With his ruling in a local case, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo joined a vast majority of the country's federal judges who have rejected an interpretation of federal law that those who illegally entered the United States must be detained.
Jeremy Torrealba Llorente “has not been provided with any reason for his detention – and there does not appear to be any lawful justification for it,” Jackson said in a court filing as he sought a federal court order this week to temporarily block a potential deportation.
Since the Jan. 20 start of the second Trump administration, 26 migrants have been charged in Buffalo with reentering the United States after having been previously deported, according to a Buffalo News review of court cases.
Homeland Security Investigations arrests Jamestown man over online threats to immigration agents.
The federal government said it will restore proof of legal status for thousands of international students, but anxiety and uncertainty remain for University at Buffalo students hit by a student visa crackdown.
A University at Buffalo graduate from India whose student visa was revoked earlier this month by the U.S. State Department filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday in Buffalo seeking to return to his post-graduate training program.
Between 200 and 300 demonstrators rallied together for a protest against the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outside 250 …
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated against Delaware North, the Jacobs family, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of a May Day nati…
Gary Kabeya, 24, was detained by federal agents on Oct. 31. A judge on Thursday granted bond.
"I'm certainly fearful," said one Buffalo restaurant owner. "I've told everyone, 'Look, have copies of all your IDs... have copies of your I-9s... keep it on you at all times."
