An immigration judge on Monday granted asylum to Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto and his son, ending a 15-year fight that began after the father and son fled Mexico under death threats in 2008.
The judge’s order granting asylum to the two men follows last September’s decision of a three-judge panel of the Board of Immigration Appeals that concluded that two previous rulings against the Gutiérrez Sotos’ asylum claims were “clearly erroneous.” At Monday’s hearing, the government also waived its right to appeal the grant of asylum.
“Our hearts are full to hear the news that Emilio Gutierrez Soto has finally been granted asylum,” Emily Wilkins, president of the National Press Club, and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, said in a statement. “Emilio’s case illustrates the frustrating, unnecessary and numerous hurdles for exiled journalists who come to the U.S. We call on our government to promote Freedom of the Press for those like Emilio who were forced to leave their countries because of their reporting.”
Gutiérrez Soto and his son, Oscar, legally entered the United States in 2008 after Emilio’s investigative reporting on military corruption in Mexico led to death threats against him. For nearly a decade, the father and son lived and worked in Texas and New Mexico as they awaited a ruling on their asylum claims.
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