Evizda

Amid new revelations showing that Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appears to be increasing its indiscriminate arrests of undocumented immigrants—not prioritizing those with serious criminal records—one journalist in custody and facing possible deportation says in a new interview that he believes his arrest was absolutely the result of his reporting critical of the Memphis Police Department and Department of Homeland Security.

At the time of his arrest in April, “I was doing my work and nothing more, like any other journalist does,” 42-year-old Manuel Duran told The Daily Beast in Spanish. He said he believes he was apprehended “without a doubt” as a result of his reporting.

Memphis police arrested Duran, who runs the Spanish language news site Memphis Noticias, on April 3 saying he refused to clear the street and presented a hazard. He, like other journalists, was covering a demonstration against ICE. Seconds before police showed up at the event, he is heard in the Noticias video coverage saying that sometimes undocumented immigrants who’ve committed no serious crime are arrested by police and then turned over to ICE.  The charges against Duran, also known as Manuel Duran Ortega, were dropped April 5, but ICE agents promptly arrested him outside the Shelby County Jail upon his release.

While Noticias had published stories critical of the police department’s conduct, including its alleged collaboration with ICE, the agency has dismissed the accusation Duran’s arrest was retaliation. Spokesperson Bryan D. Cox told The Daily Beast, “Duran was arrested [by ICE] because he is in violation of federal immigration law.” Duran, who came to the U.S. in 2006 after fleeing El Salvador, “received a removal order in 2007 after he missed an immigration hearing, but he contends he never received notice of that hearing,” the publication added.

Duran’s case has been highlighted by Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF.  Margaux Ewen, head of the group’s North America bureau, expressed concern “that a journalist wearing his press credentials while reporting was arrested.” She noted that he “came to the United States after fleeing life-threatening situations in his home country and has been well-known in Memphis for covering controversial issues related to local and federal law enforcement ever since. We urge the U.S. government to consider the consequences of sending an investigative journalist back to a country where he has faced death threats.”

RSF’s 2018 press freedom index ranks El Salvador 66 out of 180 countries—a drop of 4 spots since 2017. The index states, “The media are among the victims of the widespread violence in Salvador, one the world’s most dangerous countries.” The country’s legislation, it adds, “provides the media with little protection, and officials harass and threaten journalists who try to investigate corruption or government finances.”