Video shows nearly blind refugee being released by Border Patrol, 5 days before his death

Published: Feb. 27, 2026
Source: AP News

The article reports that surveillance video shows Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a 56-year-old refugee from Myanmar with very limited vision, being dropped off by Border Patrol agents at a Tim Hortons in Buffalo on Feb. 19, 2026, after his release from the Erie County Holding Center. The video shows him exiting a Border Patrol vehicle, walking through the parking lot in county-issued booties, and approaching the restaurant’s locked door before moving away. Five nights later, he was found dead on a sidewalk near the arena where the Buffalo Sabres play, and authorities say it was unclear how he traveled several miles from the drop-off site. Buffalo police were reviewing city footage, and the medical examiner was investigating the cause of death. according to AP, “A Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo lawyer, Benjamin Macaluso, reported Shah Alam missing Sunday.

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By then, Shah Alam’s family knew he had been released from jail but had no idea of his whereabouts. Macaluso went to an area immigration detention center, where he assumed Shah Alam had been taken, but he was told he wasn’t there. He visited hospitals and homeless shelters, searched the neighborhood where the family lived previously, and distributed missing persons posters around the area.” The report also summarizes the 2025 arrest that preceded his detention and notes statements from Customs and Border Protection about the drop-off location. They report that “advocates for the family say Shah Alam wandered into the wrong property when the police were called and did not understand the officers’ commands because he did not speak English.”