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"All I am asking for is human kindness, not special treatment."

Those are the words of Adil Osman, a Sudanese national and an engineering school graduate who came to Albuquerque to do his graduate work at the University of New Mexico. He's also a husband and the father of a young son.

Osman is in his 10th month of incarceration at the federal detention facility Downtown.

Unlike the other inmates there, he has not been charged with a crime.

He's there from a combination of screwing up his immigration paperwork, receiving bad information from overwhelmed and indifferent federal agencies and a living in a world where compassion is in very short supply.

His words, spoken to me over the phone line in the cramped visitors' area last Sunday morning, very much fit the man. The glass between us couldn't diminish the gentle demeanor, steady gaze and soft, if frustrated, voice. Not even the screams and wailing from the prisoners down the hall overwhelmed him.

"He seems like a very good man, mild-mannered," said his latest attorney, Erlinda Johnson, a former federal prosecutor. "He's not your criminal element.

"I'm very surprised he's been in custody for so long."

So is he. Ten months is a long time to be locked up while no one seems to want to make a decision on your status.

Reading over the latest filing by Johnson to the U.S. District Court reveals a twisted tale that is all too familiar to anyone in the business of immigration work.

Osman, "Dil" to his many friends here, was granted a student visa in 1995 to attend UNM, got married, and filed for permanent resident status. In the course of getting the necessary fingerprint and blood tests for filing, he missed his court hearing in El Paso by a day. A misunderstanding on Osman's part he owns up to without question.

Not the end of the world. The court granted him 30 days to appeal, but the stakes were getting higher at this point, since missing the hearing put him on "removed in absentia" status.

He contracted with an immigration legal service in El Paso to re-file his motion. Unbeknownst to him, they did not do so. Things spiraled quickly from there.

A series of attorneys, one of whom took what little money he had left and bolted, were no help. It did not help either that Osman tried to go it alone for a spell, filing his own motions to re-open his case. It did not work.

A visit to U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson's office in April of 2005 resulted, a year later, in a meeting with immigration officials to hear his case. On that June 6, 2006, visit, the absentia order of removal caught up with him. He walked right into the lion's den and was detained on the spot.

One of the more bizarre aspects of his case is his filing of habeas corpus, done by Osman himself, with the U.S. Attorney's Office here. It was Dec. 4, 2006, three days before the firing of David Iglesias. Needless to say, that office had other things to consider.

Which likely is why it has twice filed for extensions on his case. On the next deadline, April 16, the office could file for another extension or, if not, must release him.

Keep in mind that in "normal" circumstances, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has three months to deport an immigrant after the order is given.

According to Johnson's complaint, if there is "no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future, then the government must establish such a likelihood, or the existence of special circumstances, or the alien must be released from custody."

So now Osman sits, 10 months later, mixed with hard-core convicts, many of them awaiting sentencing on capital crimes. His first cellmate was in for double homicide.

At this point, Osman, whose wife and son are living in Socorro, just wants to leave the country and go home, so far his faith has fallen.

From the dream of citizenship, a family and a master's degree, to a dream of stepping off a plane and into his homeland's civil war. Human kindness is in short supply right now for Adil Osman, no matter where he ends up living.