Thread: Mexican Journalist Freed, Asylum Case Pending

Mexican journalist freed, asylum case pending

Posted: Jan 30, 2009 10:45 AM PST
Updated: Jan 30, 2009 10:52 AM PST

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - A Mexican journalist seeking asylum in the United States after a series of stories about alleged Mexican military abuses of civilians has been released from an immigration jail after 7 months' detention, his lawyer said Friday.

Emilio Gutierrez Soto had been jailed since June 2008, when he and his 15-year-old son crossed the U.S. border in Antelope Wells, N.M., a remote crossing about 200 miles west of El Paso, and asked U.S. authorities for protection.

Gutierrez claimed he was receiving daily death threats for nearly two years because of his reporting on Mexican soldiers he said were abusing civilians while they searched homes for drug cartel members. He fled after a group of heavily armed men identifying themselves as soldiers ransacked his home.

Carlos Spector, Gutierrez's El Paso lawyer, said Friday that the 46-year-old reporter for the El Diario newspaper in Ascencion, Mexico, was abruptly released Thursday afternoon with little warning and no explanation from immigration authorities.

"All of the sudden in the morning they called him and he called me frantically thinking he may be transferred to another center," Spector said.

Gutierrez's son, Oscar, was released from a juvenile detention center in August and has been living with relatives in El Paso.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment Friday. Gutierrez's asylum application is pending and a hearing is scheduled for March.

Dozens of people from Mexico, including police officers, businessmen and at least one prosecutor, have sought asylum in the last year. Immigration law experts have said many of their cases may be hopeless, in large part because fear of crime is not generally grounds of political asylum.

Asylum seekers have to prove they are being persecuted because or race, religion, political view, nationality or membership in a particular group. They also have to show that the government is either unwilling or unable to protect them.

His case has garnered international attention and support from media groups.

In a statement issued Friday, Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom group in Paris, argued that forcing Gutierrez to return to Mexico would be a virtual death sentence.

Spector said he believes Gutierrez has a strong case, given the ongoing drug cartel war - more than 1,700 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, in the last 13 months - and what he describes as the "massive oppression of reporters in Mexico." Media groups have said that Mexico is among the most dangerous places in the world to report.

In November, veteran crime reporter Armando Rodriguez, who had been writing extensively about the cartel war in Juarez, was killed outside his home as his young daughter looked on.

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press Writer

http://www.kvia.com/global/story.asp?s=9761578

Dozens of people from Mexico, including police officers, businessmen and at least one prosecutor, have sought asylum in the last year.

What if they are granted asylum? Isn't half the population of mexico in fear for their lives? Could you imagine how many millions could then apply? Keep an eye on this one, it could set presidents we surely don't need.