Dec. 12, 2017 – Emilio Gutierrez, a Mexican journalist who sought refuge in the U.S. nearly a decade ago, is facing deportation, despite the fact that he faces near-certain death if he returns to Mexico.
The NewsGuild-CWA has joined 20 other press freedom organizations that are supporting Gutierrez’s request for asylum and asking supporters to sign a petition to stop his deportation.
Speaking by phone from the detention center, Gutierrez told a press conference on Dec. 11, “Please do not forget us.”
“Do not forget to publish the pain, the terrifying situation I am in and the terrifying manner that journalists have to work in Mexico.” His remarks were translated by his attorney, Eduardo Beckett, who also spoke by phone.
Gutierrez said Mexican authorities would be waiting for him if he were forced to return to Mexico.
“I have a death sentence,” he said. “They are waiting for me. As soon as I am deported, I will be killed.” Although scores of journalists have died in Mexico, “not one person has been arrested and tried,” he said. “I ask all of you to please not abandon us, please.”
Dangerous Reporting
Gutierrez’s life is in danger because of his reporting in El Diario del Noroeste on looting, robbery and extortion by military forces in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Following publication of his reports, on May 5, 2008, Mexican military forces raided and ransacked his home. On June 14, he was informed by a source that the military was planning to kill him.
Fearing for his life and the life of his 15-year-old son, on June 16, 2008, Gutierrez presented himself and his son to authorities at the border in Antelope, New Mexico, where he asked for asylum.
After spending nine months in detention, on Jan. 29, 2009, he was paroled, reunited with his son, and notified he would be allowed to remain in the U.S. while his case was reviewed. Between 2009 and 2017, Gutierrez ran a food truck to support himself and his son, and periodically checked in with Immigration officials, as required.
After a hearing in November 2016, on July 19, 2017, Immigration Judge Robert Hough denied Gutierrez’s request for asylum, questioning his journalistic credentials and suggesting the Mexican government would protect him.
Gutierrez appealed Hough’s decision, but in November, the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Immigration Appeals denied his appeal. Gutierrez appealed yet again.
Anything But Routine
However, when he reported for a routine check-in at the Immigration and the Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in El Paso, Gutierrez and his son (now 24 years old) were handcuffed and told that they would be immediately deported. After Gutierrez’s lawyer intervened, the deportation order was “stayed.”
Beckett wasn’t permitted to see Gutierrez, who was detained and transferred to the Sierra Blanca Detention Center, 90 miles from El Paso, where his lawyer works. Gutierrez remains in detention, under conditions he says are so bad that he is contemplating going on a hunger strike. [He was transferred to the El Paso Detention Center after publication of this article.]
Reporters Without Borders has called Mexico the Western Hemisphere’s “deadliest country for the media.” Since 1992, scores of reporters have been killed, including 11 this year.
Most killings have been unsolved, but drug cartels and government and security forces have been implicated.
Read letter by press freedom groups seeking asylum for Gutierrez.
Read more about Gutierrez’s case in a 2009 article in Mother Jones.
Read Preliminary Observations by UN.