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September 19, 2023

Mexican Journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto Granted Asylum in U.S. After 15-Year Appeal
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Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto has been granted asylum in the
United States after 15 years of fighting for protection. Gutiérrez and
his son fled Mexico in 2008 after receiving death threats over
Gutiérrez's reporting on corruption within the Mexican military in the
northern state of Chihuahua.

They were detained for seven months, eventually released to live in the
United States while an asylum appeal was pending. Democracy Now! spoke
with Gutiérrez by phone in 2017 as he was jailed at a U.S. detention
center in El Paso, Texas, awaiting possible deportation.

Emilio Gutiérrez Soto: "Well, if we are deported, that obviously implies
death. Why? Because ICE, under the Department of Homeland Security of
the United States, by law, must give a report to the immigration
authorities of Mexico and the consulate. And the immigration officials
in Mexico have no credibility. It's impossible to trust in them. To the
contrary, many of those officials, many personnel at the consulate or
immigration service, are caught up with organized crime."



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