Aleksander Nilaj, the Albanian immigrant behind one of the Bronx’s busiest food pantries, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on October 13, at the very place he had gone to follow the rules. He was taken into custody while attending his immigration hearing at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan.
He is now held at the Delaney Hall Detention Center in New Jersey.
Nilaj founded the Albanian American Open Hand Association in 2012, starting with food packages and school supplies for families in Pelham Parkway. After the COVID-19 pandemic, demand exploded, and the pantry now serves 7,000 to 8,000 people a month.
Without him, the doors are closed. The pantry on Lydig Avenue says it will not distribute food until Nilaj returns, and warns it could shut down indefinitely if he does not.
Rep. Ritchie Torres visited him in detention and called for his release, saying that locking up a man who devoted his life to feeding people “is not justice, it’s cruelty.” Torres said Nilaj has no criminal record and no charges against him, and that his lawyer would seek his release through a habeas petition.
Bronx Community Board 11 wrote to an immigration judge urging his release on bond, citing his service and clean record. The manager of the building where he works as superintendent said he has health problems, including a bad back.
One Bronx resident told NBC New York that Nilaj had been “a blessing to the community.”
The Department of Homeland Security says Nilaj entered the U.S. legally on a temporary basis on October 1, 2006, overstayed, and was ordered removed by an immigration judge on July 22, 2008. Court records show he had been fighting that order before the Third Circuit, which denied his request to halt deportation in November 2025. DHS also pointed to its self-deportation program as an option he could have used.
According to TRAC data, more than 70% of immigrants in ICE detention have no criminal history.
Staff and neighbors have gathered on Lydig Avenue to sign petitions demanding his release. For now, the shelves stay empty.
