WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
National Press Club, its Journalism Institute and other advocates
for press freedom and immigration justice urge U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement to suspend efforts to deport Emilio Gutierrez, a winner of the club's Press
Freedom Award.
Late on Friday, an immigration judge in El Paso, Texas, refused to stay the
deportation of Gutierrez from the United
States — where 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, which
took place last year.
"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."
Gutierrez has been in the midst of an appeal process over his
asylum case. On Thursday Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officials summoned him for a meeting. They told his lawyer they
wanted to deport him that day. This meeting took
place exactly six weeks after he 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 Homeland Security and 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
Sandy Johnson, president and
COO
National Press Foundation
Margaux Ewen, acting North America director
Reporters Without Borders
Dan Shelley, executive
director
Radio Television Digital News Association
Bruce Brown, executive
director
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Suzanne Nossel, executive
director
PEN America
Joshua Hatch, president
Online News Association
John Donnelly, president
Military Reporters and Editors
Sarah Glover, president
National Association of Black Journalists
Yvonne Leow, national
president
Asian American Journalists Association
Melissa Lytle, president
National Press Photographers Association
Mark Hamrick, president
Society of American Business Editors and Writers
Alberto B. Mendoza, executive
director
National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Beau Willimon, president
Writers Guild of America East
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