National Press Club to host briefing on effort to #KeepEmilioFree

Freed after eight months in jail, award-winning Mexican journalist faces new legal threat

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Oct 04, 2018, 16:38 ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The lead attorney for Emilio Gutiérrez-Soto, the National Press Club's 2017 Press Freedom award winner, will brief reporters on continuing legal threats to the Mexican reporter on Friday, October 12 at 9:30 a.m. in the Club's Zenger Room.

Freed from eight months of detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following a lengthy legal challenge by U.S. and international press organizations, Gutiérrez and his son, Oscar, are now living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the veteran reporter has been welcomed as a member of this year's class of Knight-Wallace journalism fellows.

Unless the Board of Immigration Appeals intervenes, however, the two will be forced to return to El Paso for an Oct. 22 hearing on their asylum case — before the same judge who last year denied their asylum claim. Beckett is seeking a change of venue to Michigan; the Department of Homeland Security has filed a brief opposing the move.

Beckett will be available to discuss the case at 9:30 a.m. EST in the Zenger Room of the National Press Club.

PRESS CONTACT:
Lindsay Underwood,
[email protected],
(202) 662-7561

SOURCE National Press Club