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POLICE/PRISON

Mexican Journalist at the Hands of I.C.E. After Criticizing US Government

A Mexican journalist and his son risk deportation due to his criticism of the U.S. government’s immigration policy.

Mexican journalist, Emilio Gutierrez-Soto, and his son, Oscar, are currently facing serious ordeals at the hands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.). The government claims that Gutierrez and his son should be deported because they are illegal aliens, but Gutierrez, who entered the U.S. as an asylum-seeker, claims that he is being targeted for deportation because he criticized the government. The case has now escalated to larger dimensions with federal court judges across several states getting involved.

Seeking Better Circumstances

On June 16, 2008, Gutierrez and his son were at the Antelope Wells Port of Entry in New Mexico, asking for asylum in the United States. I.C.E. officials said Gutierrez told of armed policemen invading his home on several occasions in Mexico, using trumped-up charges to arrest and execute him after he criticized the Mexican government in his journalism.

Gutierrez was said to have been referred to an entry site where Customs and Border Protection officers would interview him. Gutierrez said he was then sent to El Paso where his asylum request would be examined. He states he was then detained at the El Paso detention center for seven months, and was subsequently released and reunited with his son, who was a minor when they arrived. They were told to await a ruling on their asylum request, and stayed in New Mexico.

Though unhappy with the seven-month detainment in the I.C.E. facility, the father and son didn’t hear a thing for many years, and they settled into a quiet life. Gutierrez even bought a food truck. However, nine years later in 2017, immigration judge Robert Hough ruled that there was little to no evidence to support claims that Gutierrez would be in danger if deported back to Mexico. Hough even asked for proof that he was a journalist back home, but Gutierrez was not able to produce newspaper clippings containing his published work, so the court ordered for him to be deported.

The John Aubuchon Award

Shortly after the ruling, on October 4, 2017, Gutierrez was asked to receive an award on behalf of all Mexican journalists back home. He then spoke at the National Press Club Awards Gala in Washington D.C., berating the U.S. government for honoring journalists in other countries while putting journalists within the country into unfavorable circumstances. He cited his seven-month detention at El Paso and criticized the U.S. immigration policy.

Little did he know this act would set things in motion against him.

The All-Saving Paper Trail

Gutierrez’s legal team put in a request to the Board of Immigration Appeals (B.I.A.) to overturn Judge Hough’s deportation order, to no avail. The team then reached out to Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont for help, again to no avail.

Gutierrez was invited to appear before I.C.E. in El Paso, where he and his son were detained again for another eight months, during which Gutierrez’s food truck was stolen.

Ultimately, Gutierrez was placed in a car en-route to the Mexican border, where he and his son would be handed over to Mexican immigration authorities. In a last minute attempt to prevent the deportation, Gutierrez’s legal team filed a habeas corpus to try and obtain another court date on the grounds of unlawful detention. Shortly after, the team obtained email evidence showing that I.C.E. had connived to deport Gutierrez after speaking scathingly of the U.S. government. Based on these email proofs, published exclusively by Freedom of the Press Foundation, Federal District Judge David Guaderrama ordered I.C.E. to release Gutierrez moments before he was handed over to Mexican authorities.

On May 2, 2018, the University of Michigan awarded Gutierrez the Knight-Wallace fellowship, which enables him to attend a year-long program with full tuition and health benefits, along with a $75,000 stipend.

However, Gutierrez’s asylum request remains unapproved, and I.C.E. may move to arrest and deport him again in Michigan.

 

 

Nearly 1,500 Families Reunited, Hundreds Still Separated in Border Control Custody

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33 Comments

  1. Louise Dodson August 7, 2018

    Hitler in the White House

    Reply
  2. Betty Major August 7, 2018

    We are loosing our freedom of speech also

    Reply
  3. Eugene Stepney III August 7, 2018

    Convict Trump ALREADY

    Reply
  4. Ray Rossman August 7, 2018

    Thought control?

    Reply
  5. Shirley Hawkins August 7, 2018

    They are ice not training for a offices mostly because of the fact he all about hateful criminals and lying trump.

    Reply
  6. Carol Funk August 7, 2018

    Are they our Gestapo?

    Reply
  7. Charles Freedom August 7, 2018

    Freedom of speech and our democracy is at stake here folks….we can’t let this racist old man destroy it.

    Reply
  8. Katrina Tina Herbus Manko August 7, 2018

    Yes we are losing speech to libersahitker in white house shows you they have no clue what Hitler really was like

    Reply
  9. Katrina Tina Herbus Manko August 7, 2018

    We are not a democracy and if any one was killing it its fake news corrupt liberal colleges teaching are kids this bs

    Reply
  10. Katy Tessler Braun August 7, 2018

    ICE LEAVEHIM ALONE.

    Reply
  11. Jackie Zapp August 7, 2018

    Fuck Trump

    Reply
  12. Romeo Romero August 7, 2018

    In Mexico journalists die as consequence for speaking up against the drug cartels or the government that is an irrefutable fact of daily life.
    Now… the United States of America in their ultimate hypocritical oath to fight Freedom of Speech or anything else for that matter condemns an exiled journalist and his family for speaking up against the government, and it’s immigration policies, and practices.
    You still think…we are not living under a fascist regime ?
    You are more naive than most 5 year olds…

    Reply
  13. Gloria Morales Mata August 7, 2018

    Tyranny is now the norm.

    Reply
  14. Bertha Gallego August 7, 2018

    The acronym I.C.E. fits these icy cold hearts of I.C.E. and the Trump Administration ?

    Reply
  15. Fred Smith August 7, 2018

    Go get Melania and her husband and parents

    Reply
  16. Bette Crooke August 11, 2018

    I bet his deportation is more than just his criticism of ice

    Reply
  17. Judith Collins August 11, 2018

    ICE has become the goon squad

    Reply
  18. Jerry Schroader August 11, 2018

    Depot them

    Reply
  19. Linda Bednarz August 11, 2018

    So is ICE the new gestapo? Too many similarities between the trump regime and hitler! I read an article while trump was running for office…it claimed trump had the book Mein Kemp on his nightstand…he read it before bed for years!

    Reply
  20. Chuck Long August 11, 2018

    He asked for asylum but couldnt prove his story that he gave. He didnt have any evidence that he was a journalist. But the topper on the cake was that he was let into the u.s while they were validating his claim to asylum. And then decided to criticize the u.s. this isnt some heart breaking story. It is a story of a man who came here on what could be false claims of assylum. And after many years of being here could not back up his original claim while criticizing my country. Fuck outta here.

    Reply
  21. ICE = NAZIS

    Reply
  22. Winifred Gilmore August 11, 2018

    So what law has he broken? Oh yeah Dicktatir tRump’s.

    Reply
  23. Alex Gasso August 11, 2018

    Ok

    Reply
  24. Marline Fulwider August 11, 2018

    Take person responsibility, you thought you could just start something like that and not finish?

    Reply
  25. Robert Reeser August 12, 2018

    Deport all of them

    Reply
  26. Josh Schwien August 28, 2018

    Citizen biased lib agenda is a bit more truthful

    Reply
  27. Robert Greer August 28, 2018

    BS risk, get rid of them…

    Reply
  28. Gen Tate-Jewett August 28, 2018

    This is SOOOO STUPID…

    Reply
  29. Peca Blanco August 28, 2018

    Horrific!!!

    Reply
  30. Raul Pompa August 28, 2018

    Time is coming when this pigs will be punished violently .

    Reply
  31. Cheryl Yeager August 28, 2018

    So these are the ones who cry about not being respected. You need to earn it by not acting like jerks

    Reply
  32. Nola Gorrell August 29, 2018

    Police state

    Reply
  33. Ronald Christensen August 29, 2018

    They have a get even mentality!

    Reply

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