New York State Assemblymember Jon Rivera is urging the Erie County Legislature to take action in helping release details surrounding the death Nurul Amin Shah Alam.
He is the latest state lawmaker to put pressure on local authorities, writing a letter asking the legislature to demand the Erie County Sheriff’s Office hold a public hearing to release details about events leading up to Alam’s death.
“That story is a brutal, tragic story that was absolutely avoidable," Rivera told BTPM NPR.
He said he wants to learn why Alam was transferred from the Erie County Holding Center into the custody of Border Patrol officers and whether the Sheriff’s Office has protocols in place to deal with refugees and asylees — many of whom, like Alam, have language barriers.
“Our local law enforcement is not trained or prepared to be able to handle the uniqueness of some of these situations, and a reliance on ICE is not the way that it should be handled.”
Rivera also criticized both the former and current administrations of the Sheriff’s Office for a lack of transparency that he says has persisted for years.
“We've seen it with the deaths in the Holding Center. We've seen it in, like I said, with the prior administration of the Sheriff's Office, but we're seeing it here now, and it needs to be dealt with,” Rivera said.
Rivera is also advocating for legislation like the New York for All Act, a Senate bill he's been a longtime co-sponsor of that would, in part, prohibit and regulate the discovery and disclosure of an individual’s immigration status. He feels that the collaboration between local law enforcement and agencies like Border Patrol and ICE will result in more cases like Alam’s if regulations aren’t put in place.
“We believe that local law enforcement should not be having these sorts of arrangements with ICE and it’s certainly not only happening in Buffalo, it's not only happening in Western New York, it's happening all over and it needs to be dealt with,” he said.
Members of community-based think-tank Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) signed off in agreement with Rivera's letter to the legislature and are also advocating for a public hearing.
"PPG hopes for that transparency to come from it. It's absolutely the case that the public wants answers, and the public ought to have answers, and the public ought to be heard," said Caitlin Crowell, a community researcher with PPG.
The group is also advocating for the New York for All Act and for the passage of a similar citywide non-collusion ordinance for local authorities.
In addition to Rivera, other state officials who are demanding answers include Governor Kathy Hochul and State Attorney General Letitia James, who opened an investigation into Alam’s death in early March.
