Shakti L. & Meir A. | Red Phoenix correspondents | New York–

Buffalo, NY – On Feb. 24, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) pigs claimed another working-class life. Nurul Amin Shah Alam was a 56-year-old disabled refugee in Buffalo who was first detained and then abandoned five miles from his home in the freezing winter by CBP. But he never returned home and five days later, on Feb 29, his body was found. Shah Alam was given no way to communicate after being freed, as he was partially blind and knew little English. Authorities did not inform his family or his lawyer of his release. During the search for him in the following days, Shah Alam’s family attorney, Benjamin Macaluso, said: “He cannot use a phone, he doesn’t know his address, he doesn’t know phone numbers, he can’t communicate, he can’t see. And they just left him.” CBP claims he was given a “courtesy ride” to a Tim Hortons, but footage from the store shows that the store was closed.

Sadly, this is not an isolated mistake or a simple lack of foresight on the part of CBP. Under the Trump regime, immigration enforcement agencies have been responsible for the deaths of many working-class people. In cases such as the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, the direct violence and terror perpetrated by immigration enforcement agencies are easy to see. However, these agencies are also responsible for the deaths of many others, including people who were not directly shot and killed by them, which often do not get the same level of attention.

Similarly, Shah Alam’s death was not merely a mistake or a lack of foresight on the part of CBP. They knew he was blind, barely spoke English, and would have difficulty asking for directions or help. Yet they first chose to kidnap him and then abandon him outside a closed store in the freezing winter. For all practical purposes, this was murder. In fact, there can be no clearer example of the phenomenon that F. Engels called “social murder”:

“When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death… its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains.” (Engels, p. 95)

Following his death, members of the American Party of Labor and Red Youth Rising in Buffalo joined the community in a vigil organized by Justice for Migrant Families West New York to mourn Shah Alam and demand justice. Those gathered read aloud the names of people killed by immigration enforcement terrorists. There was a sense of deep sadness among the attendees, but also determination that working people must stand together, organize against and resist the Trump regime’s assault on working class people.

A few days later, the vigil was followed by a press conference where members of Shah Alam’s family spoke publicly. His family remembered him as a calm and collected man. “He didn’t take anything personal. He would take his curses as a blessing.” Nurul’s daughter-in-law said.

Democratic Party politicians like Jonathan Rivera were quick to issue statements condemning the tragedy and calling for accountability. But statements like these do nothing to address the system responsible for Shah Alam’s murder. Politicians like Rivera serve the same ruling class that benefits from the scapegoating of and attacks on the migrant working class. Rivera, like many of these bourgeois politicians, supports U.S. imperialism abroad, including the Israeli genocide, while also defending the institutions that terrorize the working class at home.

However, the working class of Buffalo and elsewhere is increasingly realizing that bourgeois politicians will not confront the fascist Trumpite regime;, only the organized power of the working class can. We must fight to abolish ICE, DHS, CBP, and all other repressive apparatuses of the capitalist state. We must fight to abolish the capitalist-imperialist system that keeps the working class under its boot.

The entire people should rise up in condemnation of this government for the numerous people it has murdered. Alam’s death, once again, demonstrates the foreseeable consequences of Trump’s fascist policies. If we want to see accountability in our lifetime, we must be able to rely on our own, working-class institutions. This is the only way that we can organize a sustained and radical challenge to fascist forces that are threatening us. We must continue to organize protests and vigils, forming coalitions, and mobilizing our communities. Above all, we must recognize “the necessity for a new party… one bold enough to lead the proletarians in the struggle for power, sufficiently experienced to find its bearings amidst the complex conditions of a revolutionary situation, and sufficiently flexible to steer clear of all sub-merged rocks in the path to its goal.” (Stalin, p. 90)

Such a party necessarily consists of the advanced detachment of the working-class, and it must seize the role of the vanguard in the popular struggle.

The lives of poor, marginalized and working people will be devalued in our society for as long as we lack institutions and organizations of our own. We can build that infrastructure through struggle alone. If we want justice, for any of the U.S.A.’s atrocities, we are going to need to take it for ourselves. The abduction and internment of our neighbors will not end until we end it.

Justice for Nurul Amin Shah Alam! Smash the CBP-ICE-DHS Axis!

Condemn Racist-Chauvinism to the Dustbin of History! 

The Workers and Migrants Stand Together!!

Categories: Health Care, Immigration, Racism, U.S. News