Democratic lawmakers are demanding that the Department of Homeland Security turn over records
and fully cooperate with an investigation into the death of
Nurul Amin Shah Alam,
a nearly blind Rohingya refugee who died after US border agents
left him outside a closed coffee shop on a freezing night in Buffalo earlier this year.
At a press conference in Buffalo on Friday,
standing just a few feet away from where Shah was found dead,
Tim Kennedy of New York was joined by
Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking Democrat on the House homeland security committee,
Lou Correa of California,
and Nellie Pou of New Jersey
in calling on DHS to cooperate with the Erie county district attorney’s investigation.
Kennedy said:
“The Erie county medical examiner has ruled his death a homicide,
yet DHS still won’t hand over a single meaningful record.
Not to my office,
not to attorney general [Tish] James,
and not to the Erie county district attorney.
Simply put, they are obstructing the pursuit of justice by local law enforcement.”
