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Arrested Reporter Slams Conditions at US Detention Centers

Associated Press

   MEMPHIS, TENN. -- A Spanish-language reporter who was recently released
   from immigration custody said Wednesday that he was held for 15 months
   in detention centers that were plagued by insects and he had to bathe
   with cold water from hoses.
   During a news conference, Manuel Duran discussed what he called
   inhumane conditions at immigration detention facilities in Louisiana
   and Alabama. Duran was released from an Alabama facility on bail last
   week as immigration 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
   blocked a street in front of a downtown courthouse on the 50th
   anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

   Protest-related charges were subsequently dropped, but Duran was picked
   up by immigration agents and detained after he was released from jail.
   U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said Duran was taken into
   custody because he had a pending deportation order from 2007 after
   failing to appear for a court hearing. Duran has said he did not
   receive a notice to appear in court with a time and date on it.

   Death threats drove him north
   Duran has lived in Memphis for years. He ran the MemphisNoticiasonline
   news outlet and reported on the effects of U.S. immigration policies on
   the Hispanic community. Duran's lawyers have said he came to the United
   States without permission in 2006 after receiving death threats related
   to reporting on corruption in El Salvador.
   Duran spoke Wednesday from a statement he delivered in Spanish that was
   later translated into English and read to reporters. Duran questioned
   his arrest and criticized U.S. policies of arresting immigrants who
   don't have permission to be in the country and targeting them for
   deportation.
   "I have seen the cruelty of the mass incarceration of immigrants
   firsthand and it is unnecessary and inhumane," Duran said.

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