MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Spanish-language reporter who was recentlyreleased from immigration custody said Wednesday he was held for 15 months indetention centers that were plagued by insects and he had to bathe with coldwater from water hoses.
During a news conference, Manuel Duran discussed what he calledinhumane conditions at immigration detention facilities in Louisiana andAlabama. Duran was released from an Alabama facility on bail last week asimmigration courts consider his request for asylum.
The El Salvador native was arrested while covering an April 3,2018, rally protesting immigration policies in Memphis. Protesters had blockeda street in front a downtown courthouse on the 50th anniversary of the Rev.Martin Luther King. Jr’s assassination.
Protest-related charges were subsequently dropped, but Duran waspicked up by immigration agents and detained after he was released from jail.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said Duran was takeninto custody because he had a pending deportation order from 2007 after failingto appear for a court hearing. Duran has said he did not receive a notice toappear in court with a time and date on it.
Duran has lived in Memphis for years. He ran the Memphis Noticiasonline news outlet and reported on the effects of U.S. immigration policies onthe Hispanic community. Duran’s lawyers have said he came to the United Stateswithout permission in 2006 after receiving death threats related to reportingon corruption in El Salvador.
Duran spoke Wednesday from a statement he delivered in Spanishthat was later translated into English and read to reporters. Duran questionedhis arrest and criticized U.S. policies of arresting immigrants who don’t havepermission to be in the country and targeting them for deportation.
“I have seen the cruelty of the mass incarceration ofimmigrants firsthand and it is unnecessary and inhumane,” Duran said.
Food portions were small in the detention facilities where he washeld, Duran said. Facilities were infected by spiders and cockroaches, and fortwo months detainees at the Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama only hadwater hoses with which to bathe, he said.
“At Etowah, for two weeks, for no reason, the heater wasturned on to its full capacity,” Duran said in the translated statement.“This happened during the summer and it was very difficult to sleep.”
Duran also said there were no recreation facilities at Etowah anddetainees “were locked up without being able to see the sunlight.”
“This experience has been very difficult for me and myfamily, psychologically and economically,” Duran said. “I feel thatmy life has turned 180 degrees and I’m still trying to adapt.”
ICE spokesman Bryan Cox challenged Duran’s assertion about bathingwith hoses in a phone interview with The Associated Press.
“If that were true, I would simply ask you, ‘Does it seemremotely plausible that you would not have heard about it at the time,'”Cox said.
Cox said all ICE facilities are subject to regular inspections.The Etowah detention center has repeatedly been found to operate in compliancewith ICE’s standards, Cox said.
Cox said outdoor recreation at Etowah takes place within thedetention center, but the recreation area has a fenced roof open to theoutside.
As Duran returns to life in Memphis, his deportation casecontinues. Lawyers with the Southern Poverty Law Center who have been workingto free Duran are now concentrating on his request for asylum, said GracieWillis, one of the center’s attorneys.
Lawyers argue that conditions have worsened for journalists in ElSalvador and Duran could be in danger if he returns. In granting his release, theBoard of Immigration Appeals acknowledged that conditions for reporters havechanged for the worse in Duran’s home country since his initial deportationorder, Willis said.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has granted Duran anindefinite stay from deportation as his case is argued.
“His individual case epitomizes the crushing weight of theimmigration incarceration system and the toll it takes on individuals, familiesand communities,” Willis said at the news conference.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – We heard Wednesday from Memphis journalist Manuel Duran, for the first time since he was released from immigration custody last week.
Duran had been transferred to four different detention centersbetween Louisiana and Alabama since April of last year. He says the conditionsthere were terrible. He says they often weren’t allowed to take showers and thefood was inedible.
Through a translator, Duran said the last 15 months have beendifficult and he is still trying to adapt to being free.
Memphis police arrested Duran he while reporting at a protest onthe eve of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
Conditions of his release are he appear for all court hearings.