Manuel Duran has been released on bond
Reporter leaves detention center in Alabama, heads to Memphis
Spanish-language reporter Manuel Duran has been released from immigration detention in Alabama after more than 15 months behind bars, and family members were driving him back to Memphis, one of his attorneys confirmed Thursday afternoon.
The release occurred about 2 p.m., said Gracie Willis, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center. She was one of several supporters present at the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsen, Alabama, when he walked out.
“I mean it was incredibly emotional,” she said. “To see him reunite with his family was just about the best outcome we could hope for.”
She said the jail officials had told the supporters to wait in a parking lot across from the jail.
“And so we were sitting there waiting in a car and saw him kind of pop out from one of the buildings across the street from us,” she said.
She said Duran was carrying a small bag of belongings and wearing the same outfit he was wearing on the day he was arrested in April 2018: a blue shirt, black jacket and black pants.
He appeared to be in good health, she said, though she anticipates he’ll have much more to say about conditions in the detention facilities where he was held.
Duran said, in a statement released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, “I feel like I’m reborn. I am happy for this day. It has been a very difficult time but thanks to God, this is the day I waited for.
“I am grateful for my team, family and my community for all the help.”
Release came earlier than expected
A recent ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals in Duran’s favor opened the door for his release on bond. The appeals board agreed with a key element of Duran’s asylum claim: that journalists like him have been targets of violence in El Salvador.
Willis said Duran’s legal team had expected that they would have to petition an immigration judge for the bond.
But before they got to that stage, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement went ahead and approved a bond of $2,000, which Duran’s family paid Thursday morning, she said.
Earlier Thursday, Duran’s fiancee Melisa Valdez and her father Daniel Valdez had confirmed they were driving to Gadsen to pick up Duran.
“I mean it’s incredibly exciting. This case has been ongoing for 15 months and required many attorneys and a lot of very active active litigation,” Willis said.
“It’s exciting on that hand. It’s also a little bit frustrating to realize that at any point in his detention ICE could have released him on an order of supervision. This family didn’t have to go through this very real trauma.”
ICE spokesman Bryan D. Cox responded: “The courts granted his Motion to Reopen, this agency promptly re-evaluated his case based upon those new facts, and he was released today pending the outcome of his legal proceedings. Prior to that court decision Mr. Duran was subject to a final order of (deportation). These facts are not in dispute.”
He said ICE makes arrest and custody determinations on a case-bycase basis.
“I’d also reiterate for general context this case clearly shows the extensive
“At any point in his detention ICE could have released him on an order of supervision. This family didn’t have to go through this very real trauma.”
due process afforded to foreign nationals in removal proceedings,” said Cox.
A native of El Salvador, Duran, 43, had worked for years as a broadcaster for Spanish-language radio stations in the Memphis area. More recently he was running his own Spanish-language news outlet, Memphis Noticias.
He was covering an immigration protest at the criminal justice center at 201 Poplar on April 3, 2018.
Some of the demonstrators had blocked a street elsewhere in Memphis earlier that day.
When a group of demonstrators slowly began crossing Poplar Avenue, Memphis police began making arrests. Duran was arrested too. Though local charges against him were quickly dropped, he was transferred to immigration custody based on a deportation order that had been issued against him when he missed an immigration court date in 2007.
He was moved among different immigration detention centers for months, most recently landing in Etowah, a county jail under contract to hold federal immigration detainees.
Final resolution of case could take years
Duran’s immigration case is not over. He still faces deportation proceedings, but the recent appeals board ruling means that those proceedings will restart.
His case will probably be reopened in Atlanta because what is where court that issued the 2007 deportation order is located, Willis said. But because he’s living in Memphis, his legal team will request the case be moved to the Memphis Immigration Court.
Immigration courts across the country are badly backlogged and final resolution of his asylum claim could take years.
In an unrelated asylum case in Memphis Immigration Court involving a Honduran woman, a judge last month set a final hearing for January 17, 2023.
The bond means Duran won’t have to stay in detention while proceedings grind on. He’s not required to wear an ankle monitor or perform regular check-ins with ICE, Willis said.
The Duran case drew international attention. A wide range of journalism organizations wrote amicus briefs in favor of him. Multiple attorneys contributed to his legal defense, including Christy Swatzell of Memphis.
Reaction of officials
Gracie Willis Attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center
Shelby County Commissioner and Memphis mayoral candidate Tami Sawyer wrote about the case on Twitter on Thursday:
“Welcome home soon #Manuelduran! This is wonderful news for his family who never gave up and for us all. I am overjoyed.”
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-memphis, likewise released a statement.
“I was troubled by the way Manuel Duran was taken into custody while covering a legitimate public protest. He was a well-known journalist and I hope he wasn’t targeted for that reason. I opposed his detention and have been calling for his release,” he wrote.
“I want to commend Mr. Duran’s superb attorney, Christy Swatzell, and her team for their handling of the case,” Cohen wrote, referring to a Memphis attorney who also played a key role in the case.