Mexican journalist seeking asylum released from ICE detention in El Paso

A Mexican journalist detained in an immigration facility while asking the U.S. government for asylum was released from detention tonight.

Emilio Gutierrez Soto and his adult son, Oscar, said the two were released from the El Paso facility on Montana Ave. without bond.

“The fight for political asylum continues, a fight that’s been going on for 10 years,” Soto said.

The agreement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release the two came six days before a hearing in El Paso before U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama, at which federal attorneys were to argue for continuing to keep Gutierrez under lock and key. Gutierrez’s representatives had argued the continued detention was partly the result of his criticism of U.S. immigration policies.

“His asylum case was reopened. He has another opportunity to prove to the judge that he is credible and that he deserves asylum and that is should be granted, and that’s where my concentration’s going to be now,” Gutierrez’s attorney Eduardo Beckett said.

Gutierrez worked for El Diario del Noroeste, a newspaper in the state of Chihuahua. He said his problems began after he wrote articles that alleged military forces were robbing and extorting local people in Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico and part of West Texas.

Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalism, in league with Syria and Iraq. After receiving what his advocates called veiled threats, Gutierrez discovered his name had been placed on a hit list. So he fled north with his teenage son and entered the U.S. in 2008, seeking asylum.

He spent seven months in detention before his release in January 2009, while his application for asylum remained pending. Gutierrez admits at one point during his detention he considered giving up, and being deported.

“At one point, I would have preferred going back to Mexico and dying standing up, and turn myself into the assassins that are looking for us, than to remain on my knees and continue to be treated poorly by the people who are in charge at this facility,’ Gutierrez said.

But, he said family kept him going.

“My son,” Gutierrez said. “My son was my inspiration.”

While pressing his asylum case, he and his son lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where they operated a food truck. Last year, he accepted the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award from the National Press Club on behalf of journalists in Mexico, now the most dangerous country in the Western Hemisphere for journalists.

After nine years, a judge denied his asylum request last July, and the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed his appeal in November.

On Dec. 7, weeks after delivering his speech to the press club, he and his son went for their routine check-in with immigration officials, were placed in handcuffs and put in detention after his asylum request was denied. They had come within hours of deportation in May when an appeals board halted his expulsion while he challenges the denial of his asylum request.

In a statement, the National Press Club, which has been advocating for Gutierrez’s release, said the journalist will begin a journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan while he continues his quest for asylum.

“While we deeply regret the long detention for a reporter who violated no laws of this country, we are thrilled that, ultimately, common sense and American values have prevailed in this case,” said Kathy Kiely, press freedom fellow for the National Press Club’s nonprofit Journalism Institute. The institute organized the defense for the Gutierrezes.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE