ICE Seeks Custody of Bangladeshi Man Charged With Murder After 2019 Deportation, 2022 Release Into U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security is asking Florida to hand over a Bangladeshi national charged with murdering his sister-in-law, once his state criminal case is finished, according to DHS statements provided to Fox News Digital.

The man, identified by DHS as Akbor Miah, allegedly went by the alias Shahidul Islam. He's accused of shooting Monica Islam, his sister-in-law, in Lake County, Florida, in May 2025.

The Timeline

DHS says Miah first entered the United States in 2016, during the Obama administration. ICE arrested him in February 2018, and an immigration judge ordered him removed later that year.

He was deported to Bangladesh in January 2019, early in the first Trump administration. At some point after that, Miah illegally reentered the United States, a federal felony. DHS says he was released into the country by the Biden administration on March 19, 2022.

DHS acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital the agency has now lodged an immigration detainer on Miah so ICE can take custody once his state prosecution concludes.

What Happened to Monica Islam

According to investigators, Monica Islam vanished after leaving the Eustis, Florida, convenience store where she worked alongside Miah on May 2, 2025. She was found dead hours later from a gunshot wound along a road in Mount Dora.

Prosecutors say they recovered Monica Islam's DNA from Miah's vehicle, along with a bullet lodged in the passenger-side door and evidence the passenger window had been shattered. Florida prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case, and Miah has been charged with first-degree murder.

Officals say Miah fled to New York after the killing before U.S. Marshals arrested him and extradited him back to Florida to face charges.

The Sanctuary State Angle

DHS framed Miah's flight to New York as an attempt to hide out in a state with sanctuary policies that limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Bis told Fox News Digital that Miah "thought he could evade justice by fleeing to the sanctuary state," though he was ultimately caught and extradited regardless.

Critics of sanctuary policies argue that limiting local-federal cooperation on immigration enforcement makes it easier for people with existing removal orders to stay under the radar, and that ICE detainers should be honored by default so someone already ordered deported doesn't get a second chance to disappear into another jurisdiction. Supporters of sanctuary policies counter that local police cooperation with ICE can discourage immigrant communities, including crime victims and witnesses, from reporting crimes at all. In this case, Miah was arrested and extradited regardless of state policy, so the sanctuary-state framing doesn't change the outcome of this particular manhunt, even if it's part of a broader argument DHS is making.

The murder charge against Miah is an allegation. No conviction has occurred, and Miah is entitled to a trial. The DNA evidence, the bullet, and the shattered window described by prosecutors are allegations laid out in charging documents, not yet tested by a jury.

What is established by DHS's own account: Miah was ordered removed in 2018, deported in January 2019, and reentered the country illegally afterward, a federal crime. He was then released into the interior of the country by immigration authorities in March 2022, under the Biden administration. DHS has not detailed exactly why Miah was released rather than detained or immediately redeported after his reentry, and that gap in the public record remains an open question.

Coverage Note

Fox News Digital broke this story with direct DHS statements attributed to acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. Other outlets picking up the story, including aggregators like ground.news, largely repackaged the same DHS-sourced account without adding independent reporting on why Miah was released in 2022 or what internal review, if any, has followed. Whether ICE or another agency reviewed Miah's case file before releasing him back into the country in 2022 has not been answered publicly by DHS or by the Biden administration officials who oversaw immigration enforcement at the time.

Miah's state murder trial in Lake County has not yet concluded. The ICE detainer means that if he's convicted and sentenced, or if the state case ends in some other disposition, federal immigration authorities intend to take him into custody for removal proceedings rather than release him again.