Friends in High Places

Ansar Mahmood, a Pakistani immigrant from Hudson who has spent more than two years in a detention facility outside of Buffalo, has received the support of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), thanks to many hours of effort by those working for Mahmood’s release.

Mahmood, who pled guilty on the advice of his public defender to helping two other immigrants whose visas had expired get an apartment and a car, was facing deportation even though he had been sentenced only to time served [“Taking on the Deportation Machine,” Newsfront, Sept. 25, 2003].

His supporters say he’s a hard-working, honest man caught up in the post-Sept. 11 hysteria. They have been lobbying elected officials for months to add their voices to the cause of granting Mahmood “supervised release,” which would be similar to parole. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) was the first to sign on.

Schumer, after an unusual private meeting with two advocates for Mahmood, issued a press release on March 17 saying he supports supervised release for Mahmood. “The FBI cleared him of any links to violent crimes, he has been a model prisoner, and he has strong support within the community,” said Schumer. “This is not a terrorism case.”

Bob Elmendorf, a spokesperson for Mahmood’s defense committee, said Schumer’s support has given them a big boost. “We had a good case before that. His coming out really buttressed it, no doubt about it,” he said. “I think [Mahmood] will be released, he won’t be deported. We believed that when we had media attention alone, but now we have congressional attention.”

Elmendorf said interest from other elected officials really picked up once Schumer made his announcement; the defense committee is in contact with “about 10” who are interested, he said, but they haven’t yet “made any promises.”

—Miriam Axel-Lute