KINGSTON - Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger is urging the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to release a county resident currently being detained in New Jersey.

Metzger said she sent a letter to the Newark ICE field office on behalf of Ali Sajad Faqirzada, asking for his immediate release.

Faqirzada is a New Paltz resident and a full-time computer science student at Bard College.

He is currently being held in detention despite a determination by immigration authorities that his return to Afghanistan would pose a credible fear of persecution or torture, which warrants an asylum hearing.

Metzger urged that he be released while he awaits that hearing.

In her letter, Metzger emphasized that Faqirzada poses no flight risk and has deep ties to the Ulster County community

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