Time and tide won't wait for Ansar Mahmood

OUR VIEW - JULES MOLENDA, Publisher; BILL FALLON, Editor; Register-Star
Editorial, Wednesday, January 14, 2004

It was a beginning last week to hear Rep. Charles Rangel, D-Manhattan and a powerhouse in the House of Representatives, come out foursquare in support of Ansar Mahmood, the Hudson pizza delivery man held over two years on piddling immigration charges.

Now let's follow through to a happy ending.

Two weeks ago, Rep John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, offered a nuanced take to a question about Mahmood. He said Washington had come to "a crisis with immigration," and that the country had to be vigilant "not to be
over-reactive in our responses."

Sweeney put forth a welcome position. It's our hope he will now join his
colleague, Rangel, and bring his sentiment to the personal level by speaking out for Ansar Mahmood.

Time is an issue. The wheels of immigration justice (in this case,
injustice) turn quietly. The Register-Star has been diligent in reporting the details of the case, but not because we are inundated with information from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Had we not been reporting on Mahmood, he would simply have disappeared into the federal maw without a trace; the BICE does not advertise its activities.

Knowing that Mahmood still faces deportation and is still behind bars, we urge Sweeney to come out on his behalf now, before America ships a good man back to Pakistan. As we have said in this space before, Mahmood is exactly the kind of immigrant who makes America the world's greatest nation. He is the inheritor of the hard-working mantle of countless striving Jews, Irish, Haitians, Greeks and Chinese before before him. You remember: America ...where the streets are paved with with gold.

We have heard a tepid statement on Mahmood from Sen. Charles Schumer;
nothing from Sen. Hillary Clinton. Now would be the time for these
heavyweights to lend their considerable sway to Mahmood's case.

Mahmood is already the poster child for overzealous prosecution. We can
continue to define ourselves as a great nation and let him return to Hudson. Or, we can cement our growing reputation as the soil of mean-spirited bullies who would jail a pizza delivery guy for over two years for nor good reason and then deport him. If Schumer, Clinton and Sweeney need a push, we urge them to call Rangel. Now would be the ideal time for the state's top legislators to unite for a common good and show the rest of America the Empire State won't be steamrolled by anyone or anything into turning its back on one of its own in trouble unjustly.