Duran: Immigrant incarceration is really ‘inhumane’
As Manuel Duran began his talk Wednesday morning in front of a big group of reporters and backers at the Hickory Hill offices of advocacy group Latino Memphis, he said he felt a bit nervous.
It was lack of practice, he said. The longtime Memphis Spanish-language radio broadcaster and reporter had been locked up in immigration detention for the past 15 months and was still adjusting to life outside.
He put on glasses and began reading from a paper. “Good morning everyone,” he said in Spanish. “I always wanted to give the news. I never imagined being the news.”
He went on to say he had become a personal witness to the Trump administration’s large-scale detention of immigrants like him, which he called “unnecessary and inhumane.”
“I’ve seen working men, business men, who’ve lived their whole life in this country and haven’t committed crimes, crying and longing to reunite with their families,” he continued.
Case made international news
Duran was released on bond last week after 465 days in detention, first in a Memphis jail, then several immigration detention centers. The case began when he was covering an immigration protest on April 3, 2018, for his online news outlet, Memphis Noticias. Some of the demonstrators had blocked a street earlier in the day, and as demonstrators began slowly crossing Poplar Ave, Memphis police arrested Duran and several others.
Local charges against Duran were soon dropped, but the arrest led to discovery of a deportation order to his native El Salvador that had been issued against him when he missed a 2007 immigration court date in Atlanta.
His case sparked protests in Memphis, international media attention, a vigorous defense carried out by multiple attorneys and organizations, plus amicus briefs from a wide range of journalism groups. An appeals board ruling reopened his case and opened the door for his release on bond on Thursday.
“In the United States we’re led to believe that freedom of the press is valued,” he said during the news conference. “But I can tell you all that under the Trump administration, this is not true.”
Duran’s lawyers had argued he was deliberately targeted due to his prior reporting on ICE and related topics. More broadly, critics have complained that ICE goes after immigration activists. The agency denies this. In the Duran case, the government has said the 2007 deportation order led to his detention.
Conditions in lockups
Duran said he was held in four different detention centers and that in each case, the food portions were too small. Detainees could buy provisions through the commissary, but those who lacked family members who could send money had to go hungry, he said.
He mentioned several problems at final detention center where he was held, Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama, including the lack of air conditioning for much of the spring. For another two-week period, the heating system running at full blast during warm weather.
He also said Etowah lacks recreation centers, that detainees can’t see the sun, and that jail administrators cut off access to phones for several days.
A July 2018 inspection of the facility by a company called The Nakamoto Group found no deficiencies in Etowah.
However, a 2016 visit by ICE’S own inspectors found multiple problems in the lockup, including food portions that were sometimes too small for calorie count standards. And the Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office has criticized the quality of the inspections carried out by The Nakamoto Group.
Duran said he’s still adjusting to life outside. “It hasn’t been easy, trying in these past days to adapt once again. However, as soon as I felt the Memphis air, I felt safe at home.”
Highlights other detention cases
Mauricio Calvo, head of Latino Memphis, said the case highlights other immigration arrests and detentions in the Memphis area - people who don’t have the support that Duran had. “Guys, this is happening every single day in Shelby County. It is happening here.”
He said the advocacy group’s immigration law team is currently handling more than 500 cases and will keep fighting.
Faith and doubt
Duran said he remained faithful that God would help him. “That said, there were difficult moments in which I did doubt, in which I did think my hope had run out.”
He also said the experience made him grow and become a better person, and that he wouldn’t change it.
He thanked his family, especially his fiancee Melisa Valdez and her father Daniel, who routinely drove hundreds of miles to go see him at distant centers. He also thanked his attorneys with Southern Poverty Law Center, Adelante Alabama Worker Center and Latino Memphis and the community of Memphis.
What’s next
Duran’s immigration case will continue, and that his attorneys will ask proceedings be moved from Atlanta to Memphis, where he lives now.
Final resolution of his asylum case could take years.
Duran said he wants to return to work as a journalist at some point, but for now he plans to take some more time to rest.
He also has personal plans - he and his longtime girlfriend got engaged during his detention. They haven’t yet set a wedding date.
Investigative reporter Daniel Connolly welcomes tips and comments from the public. Reach him at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.