Clinton weighs in on detained deliveryman

ALBANY (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said the case of a Pakistani immigrant detained after taking pictures of a reservoir was "disturbing."

Clinton, in a letter sent Monday to federal immigration officials, asked that they consider requests from Ansar Mahmood's former neighbors in Hudson, N.Y. to release him and allow him to stay in this country.

Mahmood, a pizza deliveryman, was questioned by authorities after taking pictures by an area reservoir about a month after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Mahmood, 26, said he was taking pictures for his family in Pakistan. No terror-related charges were filed against him.

But investigators found he co-signed an apartment lease and registered a car for an area Pakistani couple with expired visas. He was convicted in January 2002 of illegally harboring aliens and ordered deported.

Mahmood's fight, waged from a detention facility in western New York, has attracted sympathy from people who feel authorities improperly rounded up immigrants after the terror attacks.

Clinton, in her letter to Michael Garcia, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said "the facts as my constituents have relayed them to me are disturbing."