Journalist Manuel Duran, arrested while covering immigration protest, could be deported by ICE

Manuel Duran, the Spanish-language journalist arrested in April 2018 and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than a year, was granted asylum in the United States on March 24, 2022, according to his lawyers.

“I’m very happy for this victory after so much time fighting for this case to be resolved. I’m very emotional,” Duran told The Associated Press in Spanish. “My family is celebrating with me. We didn’t think it would happen because it was a difficult case.”

Duran, who is originally from El Salvador, was arrested while covering a rally against immigration policies in Memphis. He was released from jail and charges relating to his arrest were dropped, but immigration agents later detained him, stating Duran had a pending deportation order from 2007. Duran was held at facilities in Louisiana and Alabama until his release on bond in 2019. After his release from ICE custody, the 11th Court of Appeals in Atlanta granted an indefinite stay from deportation while lawyers argued his asylum case.

“The positive resolution of my case today is a triumph in the fight to defend the First Amendment,” Duran said in a statement released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which helped represent him. “This victory is dedicated to all the journalists being persecuted in this moment, because no journalist should have to fear to do their job.”

Two Memphis-area governments have agreed to settlements with Manuel Duran, the Spanish-language journalist arrested in April 2018 and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for 15 months, according to the Memphis County Appeal.

The Appeal, which obtained the documents through a public records request, reported that the Shelby County government paid Duran and his lawyers a total of $10,000, and the City of Memphis paid $9,000. In exchange, Duran agreed to withdraw his civil suit against the city, country and several officials, and the case officially closed in mid-November.

Duran, who was released from ICE custody in July, has applied for asylum from his home country of El Salvador, where he says he faces death threats. The Associated Press reported that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has granted Duran an indefinite stay from deportation as his case is argued.

After being held for more than 15 months by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Salvadoran journalist Manuel Duran was released on July 11, 2019.

Gracie Willis, a Southern Poverty Law Center attorney who is representing Duran, told CNN that the journalist was released from an Alabama detention center on $2,000 bail.

He is expected to file an application for asylum soon, his attorney told CNN.

The Board of Immigration Appeals had ordered his case reopened earlier in the week, according to Memphis Noticias, the Spanish-language news outlet that Duran was running at the time of his arrest while covering a protest.

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas said Duran showed the board that conditions had changed for journalists in El Salvador and that he showed a “well-founded fear of persecution on account of his anti-corruption political opinion.”

Duran said he fled El Salvador in 2006 due to death threats because of his journalistic work, according to the Knight Center.

In September 2018, a federal district court in Louisiana denied Duran’s petition for habeas corpus, dismissing his claim that ICE had detained him as retaliation for his reporting.

A month later, the Board of Immigration Appeals denied Duran’s appeal to reopen his case.

Back in 2007, an immigration judge in Atlanta held a hearing on Duran’s asylum case; when Duran did not show up for the hearing, the judge ruled that Duran should be deported to El Salvador since he had failed to provide evidence that he would be in danger if deported.

Duran and his attorneys made two arguments for why his case should be reopened. First, they argued that Duran had never been informed about the date and location of the 2007 immigration court hearing. Second, they argued (with the help of a coalition of press freedom groups) that Duran would be in danger if he were deported to El Salvador now, since the country had become a much more dangerous place for journalists since 2007.

The BIA rejected both arguments, declining to reopen Duran’s case and paving the way for ICE to deport him. But BIA decisions are subject to review by federal appeals courts, and Duran’s attorneys appealed the BIA’s decision to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Eleventh Circuit was more sympathetic to Duran’s arguments.

On Nov. 30, 2018, a panel of three Eleventh Circuit judges granted Duran a new stay of deportation, preventing ICE from deporting Duran while the Eleventh Circuit is considering his appeal.

Duran is currently being held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana. While the Eleventh Circuit’s stay prevents ICE from deporting Duran, it does not restrict the agency from continuing to detain him indefinitely.

Duran told The Daily Beast in an interview on July 9, 2018, that he believes “without a doubt” that the Memphis police and ICE deliberately targeted him for arrest as retaliation for his earlier reporting on the police department’s cooperation with ICE.

He said that the police had no justification to arrest him.

“I was doing my work and nothing more, like any other journalist does,” he said.

On May 29, 2018, the Board of Immigration Appeals granted Duran a stay of deportation while it reviews his case, the Commercial Appeal reported. He will remain in ICE detention in the U.S. until the BIA rules on whether or not to reopen his case.

Shortly after being taken into ICE custody, Duran was moved to the LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana, according to the Southern Poverty Center.

On April 13, 2018, lawyers from the SPLC filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on Duran’s behalf in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. The petition argues that Duran’s arrest by the Memphis Police Department and subsequent transfer to ICE custody were unlawful and the court should order his immediate release.

The SPLC petition also argues that Duran’s arrest and detention could be retaliatory, since he has previously reported on the Memphis Police Department's cooperation with ICE. According to the petition, a Memphis police officer asked him in 2017 to remove a story about the department's relationship with ICE.

“At no time do we target individuals based on their criticism and/or opinion of the Memphis Police Department,” a Memphis Police Department spokeswoman told the Commercial Appeal. “As it relates specifically to the arrests at 201 Poplar Avenue, the officers responded to an unpermitted protest, issued lawful orders, made probable cause arrests, and acted within their authority.”

An ICE spokesman told The Associated Press that Duran was detained by ICE because he was an “immigration fugitive.”

“Mr. Duran Ortega was ordered removed from the United States by a federal immigration judge in January 2007 after failing to appear for his scheduled court date,” the ICE spokesman said. “He has been an immigration fugitive since that time. Mr. Duran Ortega is currently in ICE custody pending removal.”

On April 16, Duran released a lengthy statement to the press, in which he thanked his supporters and described ICE’s treatment of him and other detainees: