{"id":602546,"date":"2018-07-13T11:57:15","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T17:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=602546"},"modified":"2018-07-14T07:35:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-14T13:35:50","slug":"judge-wants-to-know-if-mexican-reporter-and-his-son-were-targeted-because-he-criticized-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/judge-wants-to-know-if-mexican-reporter-and-his-son-were-targeted-because-he-criticized-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge wants to know if Mexican reporter and his son were targeted because he criticized ICE"},"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 and been living in Las Cruces since 2008.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>EL PASO, Texas \u2014 A Mexican reporter and his son who have been detained since last year won a small victory Tuesday when a federal judge set a hearing to determine whether the government has been holding the two in violation of the First Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>Emilio Guti\u00e9rrez Soto and his son Oscar have been in an immigration detention center here since they were nearly<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>deported back to Mexico in December. They fled the border state of Chihuahua in 2008 when Emilio Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019s reporting on cartel crime and government corruption led to death threats; the two had been living legally in the United States since then, awaiting a final decision from an immigration judge on their asylum claim.<\/p>\n<p>Their\u00a0claim was denied in 2017, but the Board of Immigration Appeals said in May it will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/05\/21\/mexican-journalist-detained-texas-granted-new-asylum-hearing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reconsider<\/a> the case based on new evidence. The\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrezes have been detained since being arrested in December\u00a0during what\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez&#8217;s\u00a0lawyer said should have been a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/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\/2018\/07\/12\/judge-asks-whether-mexican-reporter-son-were-needlessly-targeted-ice\/\" 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>On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama set an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/4595315-OrdertoShowCause.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aug. 1 hearing<\/a> to determine if there was merit to the\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrezes&#8217; claim that they have been held without cause. The order came after the International Human Rights Clinic at Rutgers University filed a writ of habeus corpus seeking their immediate release.\u00a0Federal officials asked the judge to dismiss the writ, but the judge instead highlighted several areas of concern in his 26-page order, including whether Emilio\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez was targeted for speaking out against the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a really important First Amendment opinion,&#8221; Penny Venetis, the\u00a0Rutgers University law professor who wrote the writ, said in a press release.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear whether Guti\u00e9rrez and his son will be released pending the appeals process.<\/p>\n<p>In October, Emilio\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez received the National Press Club\u2019s John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award\u00a0for his reporting in Mexico and publicly\u00a0criticized the asylum process in the United States.\u00a0His attorney and press freedom advocates contend that his criticism of the government played a part in his arrest.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government claims it detained the father and son only after the immigration judge in their case issued a final order of removal in August. But according to emails between Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that were obtained by the National Press Club, federal agents were \u201calready targeting\u201d Emilio\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez in February.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is significant because it is before the immigration judge issued the removal order in July 2017, which became final in August 2017,\u201d Guaderrama wrote. \u201cMoreover, Mr. Guti\u00e9rrez-Soto criticized ICE and the government in a very public manner while accepting a prestigious award from the National Press Club. His arrest occurred only a couple months later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The judge also noted that Bill McCarren, the National Press Club&#8217;s executive director, gave a sworn statement in which he said ICE officials suggested he and others \u201ctone it down\u201d when it came to drawing attention to the reporter\u2019s case.<\/p>\n<p>When the Tribune wrote about McCarren\u2019s account in December, William P. Joyce, the acting field office director for ICE enforcement and removal operations in El Paso, said there was no such suggestion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt no time was it stated, suggested or hinted that media reporting of this case be \u2018toned down\u2019\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Eduardo Beckett, their attorney, said the judge\u2019s order is a defense of free speech.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether you\u2019re an asylum seeker or a journalist you have right to criticize the government, whether it\u2019s the Mexican government or the U.S. government,\u201d he said.<script async src=\"https:\/\/cdn.texastribune.org\/pixel\/dot.min.29c708b3d0da5d17a725.js\" integrity=\"sha384-8Xwf\/TlQnmHiajg1t3dn8w4qlF1rmV33o5NAQVXYu0T2q3rHV5579zrSmRjh+XnM\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/12\/judge-asks-whether-mexican-reporter-son-were-needlessly-targeted-ice\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A judge has set a hearing to determine whether the government has detained Emilio Guti\u00e9rrez Soto and his son in violation of the First Amendment.<\/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],"class_list":["post-602546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602546","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=602546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602546\/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=602546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}