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rohingya
Footage Contradicts DHS Claim That It Dropped Blind Rohingya Refugee at 'Safe Location' in Buffalo
Nurul Shah Alam was found dead on a Buffalo street this week, days after being released from a county jail and dropped at a closed coffee shop by Border Patrol agents.
Feb 27, 2026
Surveillance footage taken at a Tim Hortons donut shop in Buffalo, New York contradicts the US Department of Homeland Security's claim that Border Patrol agents dropped Nurul Shah Alam, a 56-year-old nearly blind Rohingya refugee, at a "warm, safe location" after he was released from jail last week, days before he was found dead.
The video obtained by the Buffalo-based outlet Investigative Post late Wednesday showed a white van pulling up to the shop at about 8:18 pm Eastern, more than an hour after the store—except its drive-thru window—had closed for the night.
A man identified by the Investigative Post as Shah Alam is seen walking by the drive-thru window and then approaching the locked door before walking across the parking lot.
Breaking: IPost has obtained footage showing a Border Patrol van dropping off Nurul Shah Alam at a closed Tim Hortons last Thursday.
Shah Alam, nearly-blind & unable to enter the shop, then wandered the city for days. He was found dead Tuesday.https://t.co/fCtRtaxaU9 pic.twitter.com/VkEqgiAUVe
— Investigative Post (@ipostnews) February 27, 2026
The Border Patrol agents who dropped off Shah Alam—who spoke no English and was blind in one eye with partial, blurry vision in the other—appeared to make no attempt to ensure the Tim Hortons was actually a "safe, warm location" that he could access. The van pulled out of the parking lot less than a minute after Shah Alam was seen exiting it.
When the news broke Wednesday that Shah Alam's body had been found on a Buffalo street days after he was dropped off following his release—and after subfreezing temperatures hit the Western New York city over the weekend—a spokesperson for Border Patrol said the agents had "offered him a courtesy ride, which he chose to accept to a coffee shop" that was "determined to be a warm, safe location near his last known address."
They also claimed that Shah Alam, who used a walking stick to get around before his arrest last year, "showed no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance."
The agents never notified Shah Alam's wife and children or his lawyers that he had been dropped off.
"So when [the Department of Homeland Security] says they 'offered him a courtesy ride to a warm, safe location'... they mean they abandoned him in the parking lot of a closed Tim Hortons in the middle of a winter evening in Buffalo," said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International. "They lie about EVERYTHING."
Shah Alam had been detained at the Erie County Holding Center since February 2025, when he got lost on the way home from a store where he'd purchased a curtain rod to use as a walking stick. He ended up in the backyard of a woman who called the police, who later reported Shah Alam was swinging the rod "in a menacing manner"—a claim his lawyer denies.
The Investigative Post also obtained police body camera footage of the arrest, which shows Shah Alam saying, "OK" and dropping one end of the curtain rod when an officer told him to put the stick on the ground. The footage also showed the officers Tasering Shah Alam and tackling him to the ground.
After the incident, Shah Alam was charged with assault, trespassing, and possession of a weapon—his walking stick—and held at Erie County Holding Center until last Thursday, after he took a plea deal. He agreed to plead guilty to trespassing and possession of a weapon and was able to avoid immigration detention even though Border Patrol had issued a detainer on him after the arrest, saying he was eligible for deportation.
Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan told the Investigative Post Thursday that upon finding the Tim Hortons closed last week, Border Patrol should have taken Shah Alam back to the Erie County Holding Center, where sheriff's deputies who knew his family from their frequent visits to the jail could have called them.
“The lawyer was not informed, and the family is just saying, ‘You had our contact information, you had our address,'” a family friend named Khaleda Shah, told the outlet. “Why not drop him at the address that’s on file for him? Why not bring you back to the holding center, rather than Tim Hortons?”
When New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof posted on X about Shah Alam's death on Thursday, DHS responded with its claim that the agents had brought him to a safe location.
"Video shows that it was night and the coffee shop was closed, so he never entered it," Kristof replied, "Instead, mostly blind and in need of a cane, unable to speak English, he tried to walk home through the freezing night—because your agents never called his family or lawyer but seem to have left him to die. Do you see how your credibility is undermined when you repeatedly make claims that are later contradicted by video evidence? Why should we trust statements from an agency with such a record of deceit?"
DHS had not publicly responded at press time.
Refugees International was among those calling for a full investigation into Border Patrol's "abandonment" of Shah Alam.
Daniel P. Sullivan, the group's director Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, noted that the US determined in 2022 that the Myanmar military had committed genocide against the Rohingya people, and Shah Alam was resettled in the US in 2024 after surviving the violence and persecution.
"The death of Shah Alam comes in the midst of ongoing violent immigration enforcement operations by [Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents that have led to widespread abuse and neglect of legally resettled refugees as well as deaths of immigrants and American citizens alike," said Sullivan.
"Refugees International, once again, strongly condemns the Trump administration’s hateful and dehumanizing targeting of those who seek refuge," he said. "We express solidarity with Mr. Shah Alam’s family, the broader Rohingya community, and all of our neighbors who face increased uncertainty and risks of harm due to the Trump administration’s current policies.”
He also said that one member of the Rohingya community had told the organization that Shah Alam's "safe haven became a tragedy for him.”
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Nearly Blind Rohingya Refugee Found Dead After Being Stranded by Border Patrol in Freezing Cold
"There must be a full investigation and real accountability from US Customs and Border Protection," said one lawmaker.
Feb 26, 2026
The latest chapter in what one historian called "the ongoing horror story of American immigration enforcement" unfolded in Buffalo, New York this week after Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, was released from a county jail where he'd been held for a year.
As Buffalo-based outlet the Investigative Post reported Wednesday, the nearly blind man was found dead on Tuesday evening, five days after US Border Patrol agents who had picked him up from the jail dropped him off at a coffee shop. They neglected to inform his lawyer or family where he was, making it impossible for Shah Alam to find his way home in sub-freezing temperatures.
Shah Alam, who was blind in one eye and had partial, blurry vision in the other, had gotten lost one day in February 2025 and ended up on a woman's porch with a curtain rod he used as a walking stick.
The woman called the police, who ordered Shah Alam to drop his "weapon"—the walking stick—and then Tasered, beat, and arrested him.
Shah Alam, who could not speak English and did not understand the police officers' orders, was charged with assault, trespassing, and possession of a weapon and taken to Erie County Holding Center.
His family, which includes a wife and two sons, chose not to bail him out of the county jail. His arrest had come a month into President Donald Trump's second term, and they feared US Immigration and Customs Enforcement would detain him if he was released and send him to a detention center out of state.
Benjamin Macaluso, an attorney with Legal Aid Bureau who was representing Shah Alam, told the Investigative Post that he had been released on bail last week after reaching a deal with the Erie County District Attorney’s office, agreeing to plead guilty to trespassing and possession of a weapon. The agreement allowed him to avoid detention by federal immigration agents even though authorities had previously placed an immigration detainer on Shah Alam.
Despite that, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office contacted US Border Patrol to pick Shah Alam up from the Holding Center. When the agents determined Shah Alam was not eligible for immigration detention, Border Patrol told the Investigative Post, they "offered him a courtesy ride, which he chose to accept to a coffee shop.”
An agency spokesperson claimed the nearly blind man "showed no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance."
Mohamad Faisal, one of Shah Alam's two sons, told Al Jazeera that his father was not able to read, write, or use electronic devices.
Macaluso told the Investigative Post that Shah Alam's family spent days searching for him in the cold before his body was found. The lawyer also said he had expected Shah Alam to be taken to an ICE detention center in Batavia, New York to be released.
A spokesperson for City Hall in Buffalo told the Investigative Post that homicide detectives were "investigating the circumstances and timeframe of events leading up to his death, following his release from custody," but said homicide and exposure to the elements had been ruled out as the cause of death by a medical examiner.
US Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) was among those who called for a "full investigation" into Border Patrol's decision to leave Shah Alam miles from his home despite his disability.
Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan, a Democrat, accused US Customs and Border Protection, which oversees Border Patrol, of a "dereliction of duty" and said the agency's treatment of Shah Alam was "inhumane."
"US Customs and Border Protection must answer for how and why this happened," said Ryan. "Buffalo is a city that welcomes refugees and believes government should protect human dignity, not endanger it. US Customs and Border Protection failed that basic standard."
Chuck Park, a Democrat who is running for Congress in New York's 6th District, said the New York for All Act, which would prohibit state and local law enforcement from collaborating with federal immigration agencies, would have prevented the sheriff's office from calling Border Patrol upon Shah Alam's release.
Alexandre Burgos of the New York State Hate and Bias Prevention Unit invited community members to a gathering to demand accountability to Shah Alam's death.
"We are coming together to demand accountability and transparency in the case of Nurul Amin Shah Alam," reads a flyer for the event, scheduled for Thursday evening at 5:30 pm Eastern at Lafayette High School in Buffalo.
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Top Human Rights Group Makes Case for Countries to 'Break Up' Big Tech
Amnesty International says Big Tech's consolidation of power "has profound implications for human rights, particularly the rights to privacy, nondiscrimination, and access to information."
Aug 28, 2025
One of the world's leading human rights groups, Amnesty International, is calling on governments worldwide to "break up with Big Tech" by reining in the growing influence of tech and social media giants.
A report published Thursday by Amnesty highlights five tech companies: Alphabet (Google), Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, which Hannah Storey, an advocacy and policy adviser on technology and human rights at Amnesty, describes as "digital landlords who determine the shape and form of our online interaction."
These five companies collectively have billions of active users, which the report says makes them akin to "utility providers."
"This concentration of power," the report says, "has profound implications for human rights, particularly the rights to privacy, nondiscrimination, and access to information."
The report emphasizes the "pervasive surveillance" by Google and Meta, which profit from "harvesting and monetizing vast quantities of our personal data."
"The more data they collect, the more dominant they become, and the harder it is for competitors to challenge their position," the report says. "The result is a digital ecosystem where users have little meaningful choice or control over how their data is used."
Meanwhile, Google's YouTube, as well as Facebook and Instagram—two Meta products—function using algorithms "optimized for engagement and profit," which emphasize content meant to provoke strong emotions and outrage from users.
"In an increasingly polarized context, the report says, "this can contribute to the rapid spread of discriminatory speech and even incitement to violence, which has had devastating consequences in several crisis and conflict-affected areas."
The report notes several areas around the globe where social media algorithms amplified ethnic hatred. It cites past research showing how Facebook's algorithm helped to "supercharge" dehumanizing rhetoric that fueled the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar and the violence in Ethiopia's Tigray War.
More broadly, it says, the ubiquity of these tech companies in users' lives gives them outsized influence over access to information.
"Social media platforms shape what millions of people see online, often through opaque algorithms that prioritize engagement over accuracy or diversity," it says. "Documented cases of content removal, inconsistent moderation, and algorithmic bias highlight the dangers of allowing a handful of companies to act as gatekeepers of the digital public sphere."
Amnesty argues that international human rights law requires governments worldwide to intervene to protect their people from abuses by tech companies.
"States and competition authorities should use competition laws as part of their human rights toolbox," it says. "States should investigate and sanction anti-competitive behaviours that harm human rights, prevent regulatory capture, and prevent harmful monopolies from forming."
Amnesty also calls on these states to consider the possible human rights impacts of artificial intelligence, which it describes as the "next phase" of Big Tech's growing dominance, with Microsoft, Amazon, and Google alone controlling 60% of the global cloud computing market.
"Addressing this dominance is critical, not only as a matter of market fairness but as a pressing human rights issue," Storey said. "Breaking up these tech oligarchies will help create an online environment that is fair and just."
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