WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
National Press Club, its Journalism Institute and other advocates
for press freedom and immigration justice urge the U.S. Department
of Justice to suspend efforts to deport Emilio Gutierrez, a winner of the club's Press
Freedom Award.
Late on Friday, Robert S. Hough,
an immigration judge in El Paso,
Texas, refused to stay the deportation of Gutierrez from
the United States – where he and
his son fled after his investigative reporting led to
threats against himself and his family. Gutierrez requested asylum
in the United States: it took eight years for him to get a
hearing.
"Gutierrez fled his country because his reporting jeopardized
him and his family and then faced years of bureaucratic
indifference before now being threatened with removal," said NPC
President Jeff Ballou. "He deserves
better from a country that has enshrined protections for the press
in the First Amendment of its Constitution."
Deportation proceedings against Gutierrez were initiated
Thursday — six weeks after Gutierrez appeared at the National Press
Club to accept a Freedom of the Press award, one of the club's
highest honors, on behalf of his country's beleaguered press
corps.
At the NPC's request, Gutierrez represented all of his Mexican
colleagues, as an exemplar of their tenacity and courage as
reporters are killed, kidnapped and forced into hiding in
retaliation for their reporting on drug cartels and government
corruption.
He and his Mexican associates "find ourselves immersed in a
great darkness," Gutierrez said through a translator.
"Our hope is that U.S. officials will provide a beacon in that
darkness, in keeping with the country's long tradition of advancing
press freedom, by granting Gutierrez the asylum he has requested in
the United States," said
Barbara Cochran, president of the
board for the non-profit National Press Club Journalism Institute.
"Sending him back to a country that is the most dangerous in the
western hemisphere for journalists could amount to a
death sentence."
The National Press Club, the National Press Club Journalism
Institute and the undersigned organizations appeal to the
Department of Justice to reconsider this deportation order.
We also ask the Trump Administration and all members of Congress to
let the Department know that this case not only puts an individual
reporter in danger, but also could have a chilling effect on
truth-telling everywhere.
Jeff Ballou, president
The National Press Club
Barbara Cochran, board
president
NPC Journalism Institute
Yvonne Loew, national
president
Asian American Journalists Association
John Donnelly, president
Military Writers and Editors
Sarah Glover, president
National Association of Black Journalists
Sandy K. Johnson, president
National Press Foundation
Melissa Lytle, president
National Press Photographers Association
Joshua Hatch, president
Online News Association
Suzanne Nossel, executive
director
PEN America
Dan Shelley, executive
director
Radio Television and Digital News Association
Margaux Ewen, acting North
American
director, Reporters Without Borders
Bruce Brown, executive
director
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Mark Hamrick, president
Society of American Business Editors and Writers
Alberto B. Mendoza, executive
director
National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Contact: Kathy Kiely, National
Press Club Journalism Institute Press Freedom Fellow,
kkiely@press.org
John Donnelly, chair, National
Press Club First Amendment Team, jdonnelly@cq.com
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SOURCE National Press Club