Democratic lawmakers are now demanding that DHS and Customs and Border Protection turn over records tied to the Erie County investigation into Nurul Amin Shah Alam’s death. The September 4 demand from Democratic lawmakers puts federal cooperation under renewed scrutiny as local authorities continue examining the circumstances surrounding his release and the decisions that preceded his death.
Nurul was a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee with legal status in the United States. He was nearly blind, had mobility problems, spoke little to no English, and was not equipped for the freezing conditions he encountered after leaving federal custody. Congressional records state that DHS agents released him outside a closed Tim Hortons in Buffalo without notifying his family or attorney. Five days later, on February 24, he was found dead.
The Erie County Medical Examiner completed its investigation on March 31 and determined that Nurul died from complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration. His manner of death was classified as homicide. That finding turned the circumstances of his release into more than a question about federal procedure: it placed Nurul’s death inside an active accountability process that local authorities are still pursuing.
The Erie County District Attorney’s Office requested the autopsy report and additional medical records after the homicide ruling and began reviewing the evidence surrounding Nurul’s death. District Attorney Mike Keane said his office would examine the medical examiner’s findings while preserving the integrity of the investigation. By September, congressional officials said that investigation remained ongoing.
That unresolved investigation is now the center of a new confrontation over federal records. Rep. Tim Kennedy of New York was joined in Buffalo by House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee Ranking Member Lou Correa, and Rep. Nellie Pou. Kennedy and Thompson also sent a formal letter demanding that DHS provide any information requested by Erie County law enforcement in connection with Nurul’s death.
Kennedy has accused DHS of failing to provide meaningful records to congressional investigators, the New York Attorney General’s office, and Erie County authorities. Thompson and the other lawmakers are also pressing the department to cooperate fully with the local homicide investigation. Those accusations place DHS’s handling of records and requests for information directly inside the accountability fight surrounding Nurul’s death.
New York Attorney General Letitia James had previously examined the case before determining that her office lacked authority to prosecute and referring the matter to the Erie County District Attorney. According to the September congressional release, CBP declined to provide information and records sought during that inquiry. The lawmakers are now demanding that federal agencies cooperate with the local investigation that remains active.
According to congressional records, DHS initially took Nurul into custody after wrongly believing he lacked legal status. Once his lawful status was confirmed, federal agents released him, turning what began as an immigration-status error into a release decision that is now part of the homicide investigation.
For Americans Against ICE, the accountability cannot stop at the fact that a medical examiner used the word homicide. The investigation must be able to establish what federal agents knew about Nurul’s condition, how the decision to release him was made, what records document that decision, and why local investigators and members of Congress are still demanding information months after his death.
The case has already produced one proposed policy response. Kennedy introduced the DHS Release Transparency Act in June, legislation that would require ICE and CBP to notify a detainee’s designated point of contact before release from federal custody. The proposal directly addresses one of the failures identified after Nurul disappeared: his family was not told where he had been released.
But legislation does not answer what happened in Nurul’s case. His death was ruled a homicide. The Erie County investigation remains unresolved. Democratic lawmakers are now demanding the records they say are necessary for that investigation to move forward.
Nurul’s family has already lived through the consequences of his release and the five days that followed. What remains is an accounting of the decisions that placed a nearly blind, disabled refugee outside in freezing conditions and whether the institutions that held those records will provide investigators what they need to determine responsibility.
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