As Alam Alaikum

We missed this original City Room post about Park Avenue fruit vendor Nurul Alam, whose upper-crust customers got worried when he disappeared from their corner in October. It turns out Alam was picked up by the immigration authorities and held in detention for three months. Luckily, as Susan Dominus updated today, those same customers helped obtain his release from jail, at least pending his next hearing. A heartwarming story, but we have to wonder, like commenters George and David, what would have happened if Alam didn’t have friends in high places? And how many other there are like him who we never hear about?