General Discussion

By Hanna Park, Alisha Ebrahimji, Elise Hammond

... neither relatives nor his attorney were told he had been released by CBP or where was taken, the organization said.

“Mr. Alam was extremely vulnerable. He spoke almost no English and could not communicate without the aid of an interpreter. He suffered from severely impaired vision and had other health issues,” the legal aid statement said.

“He had only been in the US for a few months prior to his arrest. He would not have known where he was or had the wherewithal to contact his family or avail himself of other resources or services that could have assisted him,” the statement continued.

Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan criticized Shah Alam’s release by Border Patrol, saying agents could have contacted family members or returned him to the county holding center. There, they could have obtained phone numbers for his son or lawyer, who had both been active visitors while he was in custody, according to Ryan.

The Department of Homeland Security pushed back Friday in a post on X saying, “It is ridiculous to blame Border Patrol for an individual’s death a week after their last interaction with them” ...

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/27/us/shah-alam-death-new-york-border-patrol-wwk-hnk