Judge Rules Blind Refugee’s Death Due to Border Patrol Is Homicide

The death of a blind Rohingya refugee who was abandoned by Border Patrol agents in a parking lot has been ruled a homicide, the Investigative Post reported Wednesday.

The Erie County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report, released Wednesday, suggested that the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam was the result of negligence from Border Patrol agents after he “was placed into a hostile environment that he could not reasonably be expected to extricate himself.” Shah Alam, 56, was a blind Burmese refugee who spoke no English.

The Department of Homeland Security claimed that the Tim Hortons in Buffalo where federal agents left Shah Alam was “determined to be a warm, safe location near his last known address.” Video footage reviewed by the Investigative Post, however, showed that the location, which was miles away from his home, had already closed for the night, except for the drive-thru.

The Border Patrol agents drove away after one minute. Shah Alam was found dead days later.

The Medical Examiner’s office said that Shah Alam suffered from a burst ulcer in his small intestine that was precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration.

It was unclear whether Shah Alam had first developed the ulcer before or after he was taken into custody more than a year ago, and charged with trespassing and misdemeanor possession of a weapon. The blind refugee was lost on a walk and using a curtain rod as a walking stick that police alleged he was “swinging in a menacing manner.” He was tased, beaten, and arrested.

Terrence Connors, the attorney representing Shah Alam’s wife and sons, said that he intended to file a lawsuit on the family’s behalf.

“Now that we have the medical evidence and the cause of death, we will look into the filing of the necessary documents to hold the individuals and the entities responsible for his death,” he said.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Erie County District Attorney Michael Keane announced Wednesday that they had opened an investigation into Shah Alam’s death.

“As more details of this case emerge, I want to be crystal clear: Every individual involved in the death of Mr. Shah Alam must be held fully accountable,” Hochul said. “To ensure a fair and impartial investigation, the Erie County District Attorney must continue his investigation and, if warranted by the evidence, prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James also opened an inquiry into Shah Alam’s death targeting the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, from where Shah Alam was released after Border Patrol determined that his charges did not render him removable. They should have returned him to the holding center where sheriff’s deputies could contact his family to retrieve him, but the holding center called Border Patrol instead.

The United States and Israel bombed the home of Iran’s former Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, killing his wife and leaving him “gravely wounded,” according to Iranian media.

Kharazi has been seen as a potential peace negotiator in the current conflict given his role as head of Iran’s Foreign Policy Council. Two Iranian officials said Kharazi was attempting to assemble a meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, according to The New York Times, leading many within the Iranian government to believe that the attack was meant to derail peace talks. Did Israel push the button while the U.S. stood by, allowing them to drag out this deadly war? Or is the United States lying about peace talks to locate and assassinate any of the Iranian leaders still willing to negotiate?

“Targeting Kharazi sure looks like an effort to undermine peace talks and prolong the war,” The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristoff wrote Thursday on X. “It would be good to know if the attack was American or Israeli, and if Israeli whether the Americans signed off on it.”

Kharazi was complaining about this lack of diplomatic transparency on Western media just last month.

“Trump had been deceiving others and not keeping with his promises, and we experienced this in two times of negotiations—that while we were engaged in negotiation, they struck us,” he told CNN.

The U.S. and Israel have now killed multiple Iranian state leaders, nearly 2,000 Iranian civilians, and over 1,200 Lebanese civilians.

Two more members of Donald Trump’s Cabinet could soon be on their way out.

The president is reportedly considering axing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Trump has polled his top advisers about the duo’s fate, asking other Cabinet officials in recent weeks whether he should give them the boot.

His gripe with Gabbard relates to her decision to shield a former deputy who disagreed with Trump’s war with Iran, people briefed on the discussions told The Guardian. It’s not clear if Gabbard will actually be fired, or who could possibly replace her.

Meanwhile, Bondi’s administrative future is apparently on the fritz due to her handling of the Epstein files. Trump has been “frustrated” with her leadership at the Justice Department, and is considering tapping Lee Zeldin—the current administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency—to replace her.

Yet Trump is still opting to publicly display his confidence in Bondi. The duo traveled to the Supreme Court together Wednesday for the court’s birthright citizenship case (something that no sitting president has ever done), and Trump chose to heap praise on Bondi’s performance when asked about the situation by The New York Times.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job,” Trump said in a statement to the Times.

In comparison to his first administration—which was practically a revolving door for the president’s underlings—Trump has been much more sparing with his staffers over the past year. Still, Bondi and Gabbard would not be the first officials from Trump’s second term to receive a pink slip from the Oval Office.

Trump axed Kristi Noem from her position atop the Department of Homeland Security last month, immediately following a string of abysmal appearances before Congress. Her position among the higher echelons of the Trump administration had become increasingly tenuous in recent months due to a series of scandals, though most notably after ICE agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, marring Trump’s immigration agenda—a chief MAGA priority—in the process.

President Donald Trump said that if there’s no deal with Iran, then he’ll blame Vice President JD Vance.

Speaking at an Easter lunch Wednesday, Trump asked Vance for an update on negotiations with Iran in front of his guests.

“He’s working on the deal, right? How’s that moving? Is it OK? The big deal?” Trump said.

“It’s going good, sir,” Vance said from the audience.

“Do you see that happening?” Trump pressed.

“We’re gonna brief you too,” Vance said.

“So, if it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit,” Trump said to laughter.

“No, I think it’ll be uh. I think it has to happen. I think they’re desperate,” he added.

Not desperate enough, it seems. Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Iran believes it is still in a strong position and is not currently willing to engage in substantial negotiations to end the U.S. and Israel’s military onslaught, U.S. officials told The New York Times Wednesday.

Trump has claimed that the U.S. has satisfied nearly all its objectives in the region—but will continue to hit Iran very hard over the next two weeks. Meanwhile, he has offered no plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Donald Trump doesn’t think the federal government should fund childcare, Medicare, or Medicaid.

At an Easter lunch reception at the White House Wednesday, the president told guests exactly what he thought about what the U.S. should be prioritizing, and it doesn’t bode well for the government’s most widely used and popular social programs.

“I said to [Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought], ‘Don’t send any money for daycare because the United States can’t take care of daycare.’ That has to be up to a state. We can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people,” Trump said. “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it too. They should pay. They’ll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up.

“It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country. But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place … you have to let states take care of them,” Trump continued.

It’s a glaring admission from Trump, who confessed point-blank that he thinks the government’s only responsibility is to fund the military. It explains why he supported a bloated military budget even before starting the war in Iran. It also explains why he didn’t seem to mind massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid with his “big, beautiful bill” last year. The White House’s YouTube account, after broadcasting Trump’s remarks live, has made the video private on the website.

The Trump administration tried to use childcare funding as a way to punish five Democratic-led states earlier this year, suspending federal funding for public welfare programs in New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota and making false claims about fraud. While that decision was struck down by a federal judge on Tuesday, his comments about Medicare and Medicaid don’t bode well for the millions of Americans who depend on them. How will Trump’s fellow Republicans, and the rest of the country, take these disturbing remarks?

This story has been updated.