Last Friday, over a dozen people gathered in a church to pray after a recent tragedy: the arrest of one of their beloved community members, Aleksander Nilaj, president of the Open Hand Association Food Pantry, a nonprofit that serves roughly 7,000 people in the Bronx each month.
Nilaj was detained by ICE at the Manhattan immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza just three days earlier, on Oct. 13.
“Aleks would take his jacket, even his shoes, off his back if it was that someone needed it,” said Pastor Angel Miguel Kuilan, who volunteers with the food pantry and was leading the conversation at the gathering at Iglesia Cristiana de Restauracion Familiar on 167th Street in the Bronx. “A lot of people say that it’s a food pantry, but it’s not just a food pantry. It is also a refuge.”
As rain pounded outside, the audience bobbed their heads and cried out “yes” in agreement.
Nilaj came to the United States from Albania in 2006, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and quickly made his mark in the Bronx. A building superintendent by day, he quietly started building what would become a lifeline for food in the poorest congressional district in the country. He then founded the Albanian American Open Hands Association, which received official nonprofit status in 2014, according to the group’s website. Open Hands has since expanded to serve a multitude of communities across the Bronx, gaining favor amongst community members as well as local politicians.
During Thursday and Saturday pantries, a line of hundreds of people would stretch from Lydig Avenue to Pelham Parkway, said Tush Musaj, a member of the organization’s board. Even before he had a nonprofit, Nilaj would frequent the store Musaj owned on Lydig Avenue to buy eggs or other goods for elderly community members, he said.
Eventually, like what happened to many, he became roped into volunteering for Nilaj’s project. Musaj described him as a man with a big heart who would work day and night to procure food for the pantry from Hunts Point to Harlem — including leftover food from other pantries. Nilaj often spent his own money when all else failed, Musaj said.
“It’s a one man shop,” said Adama Bah, executive director of Afrikana, a nonprofit that focuses on helping Black, Arab, and Muslim migrants in Harlem and the Bronx and also runs a food pantry. “If you don’t know him, you would think that people are exaggerating about him. You think I do a lot of work. Wait ’til you meet Aleks.”
This made Nilaj a beloved member of the community, many of whom were unaware of his immigration status. When community members heard of his detention, they went into shock, lamenting the loss of a man they say only lived to serve.
Pastor Kuilan, whose work at Nilaj’s food pantry developed into an eight-year-long friendship, called Nilaj a “Mother Teresa.” He recalled how Nilaj would go out of his way to help people with anything they needed, whether they needed extra clothing or help finding an apartment. He even helped pay for the burial of Kuilan’s daughter after she died from an overdose.
In a statement provided to News 12, the Department of Homeland Security said: “On October 13, 2026, ICE arrested Aleksander Nilaj, an illegal alien from Albania. He legally entered the U.S. on a temporary basis on October 1, 2006 and illegally overstayed his lawful admittance in violation of our laws. He received due process and was ordered removed by an immigration judge on July 22, 2008. This administration will not ignore the rule of law.”
Court records show that Nilaj and his wife filed multiple failed appeals to their asylum case throughout the early 2010s. Later, the couple applied for a stay of removal, most recently in 2025. That case is still pending in appeals court.
‘Imagine If All the Electricity Just Turned Off Right Now’
Bah, the Afrikana executive director, told Documented that Nilaj was exceptionally resourceful.
“He just finds food, and food just finds him,” said Bah, adding that whenever her organization had leftovers, Nilaj found a way to pick them up and distribute the food to others. His arrest called into question whether the thousands who depended on him for food would be left scrambling.
“You’re talking about a big lifeline. Imagine if all the electricity just turned off right now, we wouldn’t know what to do.” Bah said, adding: “The shock is still hitting the community, they still haven’t processed. And you know what’s crazy? A lot of those people voted for Trump, and they didn’t think that [the administration was] gonna take their light away.”
The roughly 20 attendees at the prayer vigil also spoke of Nilaj as a unifying force. He began his nonprofit to help Albanians but soon learned that the need was much greater and expanded his mission to include anyone in need in his neighborhood. A chaplain for the international alliance of chaplains and law enforcement, Nilaj also worked with local law enforcement, first responders, and other community organizers on drug, alcohol,and violence prevention programs.
“He fits in every place,” Bah said.
The pantry, which usually opens its doors to the public on Thursdays and Saturdays, was closed in the days following his arrest.
Musaj told Documented that he’s seen people approach the pantry, and when they find it’s closed, ask “What do I do now?”
After his arrest, Nilaj was sent to Delaney Hall, a detention center in Newark, New Jersey, that made headlines earlier this year after detainees launched a hunger and labor strike to protest conditions inside the facility, including what dozens inside have called medical neglect. At least three people detained at Delaney Hall have died in the last year, including Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian national; Jovanny López Cornejo, a 39-year-old father from El Salvador, and José Efraín Chajón Raxón, a Guatemalan national.
Nilaj’s lawyer has filed a habeas petition for his release and his community are gathering letters and petitions in support of his release. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz prohibited ICE from moving him outside of New Jersey until the agency shows just cause for his detention.
Nilaj’s current location could not be confirmed due to recent policy changes removing records for detained immigrants with deportation orders, making them nearly impossible to track.
Several community members have expressed concern about Nilaj’s physical condition. He had been receiving physical therapy for his back and some are worried he may not be receiving needed care while he’s detained, said Bah.
If Nilaj is deported, Kuilan said he could not fathom who might pick up the mantle of both collecting and distributing food to community members in need. “I know some of the connections, and I can call people to bring food, and people will bring food, but I’m not Aleks,” he said.
He stressed how rare Nilaj’s determination to help the community was. “I don’t have Aleks’ time. My back gives up on me. As soon as my back gives up on me, I’m gonna sit down. Not Aleks,” Kuilan said. “Now Aleks will throw himself on a wheelchair and with one leg go up and down the street, asking people to give and that there’s going to be a food pantry.”
“Aleks is the brain,” he added.
Even in detention, Bah is sure that Nilaj is finding ways to help.
“I know Aleks,” she said. “He’s trying to figure out how to help people. He’s probably buying them food, putting money in their commissary. That’s where the food pantry went.”
Documented was unable to reach Nilaj’s lawyers by publication.
Since his arrest, supporters have come together to stand up for Nilaj. Friends and volunteers for the food pantry gathered Thursday to hold a rally and gathered signatures to plead for his release. Community members have been posting online, hoping to drum up attention for the case.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents New York’s 15th Congressional District including parts of the Bronx, visited Nilaj at Delaney Hall to demand his release and to ensure he received the medical care he needed.
“Aleks is not just a resident of the Bronx. He is a community leader,” Torres said in a video posted to social media, adding that Nilaj’s Open Hand Foot Pantry has fed thousands of families. He called Nilaj’s detainment “cruelty.”
“Aleks has always stood up for the Bronx, and we in the Bronx must stand up for him,” Torres said.
Kuilan told Documented through tears that Nilaj had sent him a message on Monday: that if he could not return home, to make sure his 13-year-old son gets to soccer practice on Thursdays, and that his 17-year-old daughter has a nice graduation dress.
In front of last Friday night’s crowd, Kuilan confessed he regretted his presidential vote.
“I thought [Trump] was going to deal with the criminals. I didn’t think he was going to go after my friend. I didn’t think he was going to go after good people, good people that has paid their dues to this country, I didn’t think he was going to do that,” Kuilan said. “I didn’t think that he was going to break families up and put children in detention centers. I didn’t know that. I didn’t believe that. But sometimes, the devil, the wolf, puts the clothing on it and makes himself look like one of us.”
