WASHINGTON: Mexican journalist Emilio Gutierrez Soto has been granted asylum in the United States, 15 years after seeking shelter amid fear of persecution in Mexico, Western media reported on Thursday.
The Board of Immigration Appeals observed Gutierrez, who legally came to the United States 15 years ago and now resides in Michigan, was entitled to get asylum.
Journalists risking lives in Mexico
Gutierrez in a statement said that journalists in Mexico and around the world who are working and risking their lives, to tell the truth, should be protected.
Gutierrez is one of several journalists whose cases have received attention in recent years, including Evan Gershkovich, Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia and freelance reporter Austin Tice, who has been missing in Syria for the last 10 years.
The National Press Club in a statement said the journalist body has been pressing Gutierrez’s case since 2017 when U.S. officials tried to deport him just weeks after he received the club’s press freedom award on behalf of Mexican journalists.
The three-member appeals panel observed that the respondent’s fear of persecution upon his return to Mexico is reasonable and well-founded.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a media rights organization, last year in a report said journalists in Mexico are going through an exceptional crisis and some have been killed.
