{"id":479891,"date":"2017-12-10T10:42:03","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T17:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=479891"},"modified":"2017-12-14T21:04:33","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T04:04:33","slug":"after-years-of-seeking-asylum-in-u-s-a-mexican-reporter-and-his-son-just-narrowly-escaped-deportation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/12\/after-years-of-seeking-asylum-in-u-s-a-mexican-reporter-and-his-son-just-narrowly-escaped-deportation\/","title":{"rendered":"After years of seeking asylum in U.S., a Mexican reporter and his son just narrowly escaped deportation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_479899\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-479899\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Gutierrez-Emilio-771x529.jpg\" alt=\"Emilio Guti\u00e9rrez\" width=\"771\" height=\"529\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Gutierrez-Emilio-771x529.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Gutierrez-Emilio-336x231.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Gutierrez-Emilio-768x527.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Gutierrez-Emilio.jpg 1005w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Juli\u00e1n Aguilar \/ The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mexican reporter Emilio Guti\u00e9rrez has sought asylum in the United States since 2008 and has been living in Las Cruces, N.M.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>EL PASO, Texas \u2013 Mexican reporter Emilio Guti\u00e9rrez and his son Oscar have been fighting to stay in the United States for nearly\u00a0a decade.<\/p>\n<p>That fight almost came to a grinding halt on Thursday after they were cuffed and hauled away by immigration agents during what his lawyer said should have been a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>The episode was the latest in what\u2019s been a harrowing saga that predates President Donald Trump\u2019s crackdown on immigration and asylum seekers. But it&#8217;s now taken a new \u2013 and possibly dangerous \u2013 turn, his lawyer Eduardo Beckett told The Texas Tribune Friday.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2017\/12\/08\/after-years-seeking-asylum-us-mexican-reporter-and-his-son-just-narrow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Guti\u00e9rrez fled the border state of Chihuahua in 2008 when his reporting on cartels and military corruption there led to a price being placed on his head. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a>\u00a0agents admitted Guti\u00e9rrez into the country \u2014 and immediately placed him in a detention center. He sat there for seven months, until January 2009, when he was released as a parolee. His son was held in a separate detention center for juveniles and released after two months. They&#8217;ve been living in Las Cruces, N.M. ever since.<\/p>\n<p>Even though he had never committed a crime and followed all the instructions he was given while he waited on a judge to rule on the case,\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez and his son were eventually denied their asylum requests earlier this year. After\u00a0the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019s appeal of the decision last month, Beckett said that\u00a0left only one option \u2013 asking that same Board\u00a0to reopen the case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we filed a motion to reopen his case with the Board of Immigration Appeals, and then at the same time we followed an emergency stay [of deportation],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Beckett said he knew that checking in with ICE Thursday was a gamble \u2013 but one he was willing to take because it was a relatively routine matter and one that\u2019s required when a request is made to halt a deportation order pending a decision by the review board.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had assurances yesterday that they would, at the very least, wait for\u00a0the Board of Immigration appeals to adjudicate the stay,&#8221;\u00a0Beckett said. &#8220;When we went to go report yesterday, ICE handcuffed him and took him away.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>While\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez\u00a0and his son were en route to the border with ICE, Beckett was able to secure a temporary halt to their deportation. But they remain in ICE custody in Sierra Blanca, Texas \u2013 a remote outpost 90 miles east of El Paso. There is no timeline on their release but Beckett said he expects a decision on the request to the\u00a0Board of Immigration Appeals within a few weeks. Until a decision comes however, Guti\u00e9rrez and his son can&#8217;t be deported \u2013 but they can remain locked up.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, ICE officials in San Antonio didn&#8217;t\u00a0provide any additional details on why Guti\u00e9rrez was detained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn July 19, 2017, a federal immigration judge denied [Gutierrez\u2019s] request for asylum and ordered him removed. On Nov. 2, 2017, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed his appeal of the immigration judge\u2019s decision.\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez subsequently filed with the BIA for a stay of removal, which was granted Dec. 7, 2017,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cGuti\u00e9rrez remains in ICE custody pending disposition of his immigration case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019s case has sparked international attention and led to media-advocacy groups to call on immigration officials to grant his and his son&#8217;s\u00a0requests for asylum. Earlier this year,\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez accepted on behalf of his Mexican colleagues the National Press Club\u2019s John Aubuchon Press Freedom Awards\u00a0for their reporting in Mexico, currently considered one of the deadliest places in the Americas for journalists.<\/p>\n<p>In an October press release, the National Press Club said\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez\u00a0said \u201che and his Mexican associates \u2018find [themselves] immersed in a great darkness,\u2019 as reporters are killed, kidnapped and forced into hiding in retaliation for their reporting on drug cartels and government corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Guti\u00e9rrez said by phone from the detention center that things in Chihuahua have changed since he first fled, but that they\u2019ve become worse instead of better. He described trembling as he thought earlier this week that\u00a0he was going to be left at the bridge and forced back into the country he fled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe [Mexican soldiers] are right there at the bridge,\u201d he said in Spanish. \u201cHow can you be confident that they\u2019re going to respect your life?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Beckett was more composed on Friday than he\u00a0recalled being on Thursday after he saw Guti\u00e9rrez hauled off. He thought his client was going to think he\u00a0had been set up because of how quickly ICE acted. He sought to allay any of those concerns on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want you to think for one minute that I abandoned you,\u201d he told his client in Spanish. \u201cWe will be with you until the end. But I need you not to give up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beckett said that he thinks ICE could try to detain his clients for long enough that the experience\u00a0breaks their spirits\u00a0and\u00a0they both\u00a0give up and ask to be taken back to Mexico voluntarily. That happened earlier this year when Martin Mendez Pineda, who also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2017\/04\/11\/asylum-case\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fled<\/a> Mexico after reporting on corruption, arrived in El Paso and sought asylum. But his detention eventually forced him to give up on the case and return to Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Despite several setbacks, Guti\u00e9rrez said he\u2019s not giving up. And even if he\u00a0can&#8217;t\u00a0stay in the U.S., he said,\u00a0he hopes to find a way to be sent somewhere else because he refuses to return\u00a0to Mexico.<script async src=\"https:\/\/dot.texastribune.org\/static\/dist\/dot.min.js\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2017\/12\/08\/after-years-seeking-asylum-us-mexican-reporter-and-his-son-just-narrow\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Mexican reporter who has sought asylum in the United States for nearly 10 years was, along with his son, were abruptly handcuffed and nearly sent back to Mexico on Thursday. Their attorney eventually halted the deportation, at least for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":479899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,3268,145,236,2260],"class_list":["post-479891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-journalism","tag-las-cruces","tag-mexico","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}