'It's a great victory': Memphis Spanish-language reporter Manuel Duran wins political asylum case

Manuel Duran, the Memphis Spanish-language reporter whose arrest at a 2018 immigration protest led to more than 465 days behind bars and sparked international attention, lawsuits and protests in Memphis, has won his political asylum case.

For years, Duran had faced the threat of deportation to his native El Salvador and had argued that if he were deported, he could be killed.

Duran had been free on bond since 2019 and continued to work for his online news outlet, Memphis Noticias. The Wednesday decision by a Memphis Immigration Court judge now means Duran has a clear path toward long-term legal status in the United States.

"I feel happy," Duran, 46, said in a Spanish-language interview Thursday. "It's a great victory and what can I tell you — I'm grateful for the work of the team of lawyers that represented me."

Duran's legal team comprised attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Immigration Rights; the number of attorneys combined with widespread support of Duran gave the Memphis Noticias reporter a distinct advantage, his attorneys said.

Of the evidence presented to Judge David Russo in immigration court, it was Duran's personal testimony that was most influential, said Gracie Willis, an attorney with SPLC.

"Manuel is a storyteller," Willis said. "He talked about having been attacked, being stalked, being issued threats, his home being shot at . . . all of these really terrifying and threatening things that he really narrowly escaped by fleeing to the United States."

Casey Bryant, the executive director of Advocates for Immigrant Rights, said Russo characterized Duran's case as a perfect example of why political asylum laws exist.

"Because of his reporting prior to coming to the United States in 2006, the government threatened him in many, many ways on many, many different occasions," Bryant said. "And it's even more dangerous in El Salvador now, for journalists."

The government of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele has been accused of conducting secret talks with gangsters and taking hostile actions against journalists, including infecting their phones with spyware.

There was no guarantee that Duran would win his case — between 2001 and the present, 69% of asylum claims were denied in the Memphis Immigration Court, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Denial rates vary widely from judge to judge, with some judges in Memphis and across the U.S. at times denying about 100% of cases in a given year.

The transfer of power from former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden doesn't necessarily mean that unauthorized immigrants facing deportation have a greater chance of winning an asylum case.

But newer policies under the Biden administration, Bryant said, mean there is "a greater willingness from the government not to pursue and the prosecution and removal of immigrants."

An arrest at a protest

The story of Duran's arrest and detention began on April 3, 2018. A group of activists planned a protest outside the criminal justice center at 201 Poplar to call attention to local authorities' cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Memphis police issued warnings for individuals in the streets to return to the sidewalk, though few complied initially.

Duran was doing a live internet broadcast of the protest when police started making arrests. He was the only journalist arrested in front of the criminal justice center, even as other journalists were documenting the melee in the street.

Prior to his arrest, Duran had been working in Memphis for years for Spanish-language radio stations and for his own online news outlet serving the Hispanic population. Despite his limited English, he had landed interviews with high-profile Memphians, including Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.

Who is Manuel Duran?: A look at the arrested Memphis-based reporter facing deportation

Previous coverage: New federal lawsuit in Manuel Duran case targets Memphis, Shelby County governments

Prosecutor Amy Weirich quickly announced that her office was dropping charges against Duran.

But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Duran shortly thereafter.

The reason: According to ICE, Duran had entered the United States illegally years earlier and missed an immigration court date in 2007. The court had issued a deportation order in his absence.

He spent time in detention centers including LaSalle in Louisiana and the Etowah County jail in Alabama, which had made headlines for its poor conditions.

A wide range of organizations advocated for his release. His fiancee, Melisa Valdez and her father, Daniel Valdez, led protests on his behalf and drove hundreds of miles to visit him.

In 2019 Duran won a breakthrough: An immigration judge ordered that he could be set free on bond while his asylum case was pending. Duran was back in Memphis shortly thereafter, and resumed his work through Memphis Noticias while his case continued to wind through immigration court.

Hearing grants Duran asylum

The nation's immigration courts are extremely backlogged, and years passed before Duran had his appearance this week before an immigration judge.

The support Duran received over the last four years was out of the ordinary. Most bids for asylum go unnoticed. There is no right to an attorney in the immigration court system. Many immigrants go into a final asylum hearing with no attorney at all, facing off against an experienced government prosecutor who argues for their deportation. Not surprisingly, they often lose.

His attorneys say legal representation was one of the key factors in Duran's success.

"This was like, six, seven attorneys over the course of four years. Not everybody has access to this level of representation," said Willis. "If this is what it takes for someone like Manuel, numerous factors that are not available to everybody — that to me indicts the system a little bit."

Duran says he would like to dedicate this legal victory to immigrants who have been detained or are currently detained. "The conditions in the detention center aren't right. These people shouldn't be detained in these centers."

And he said he also would like to dedicate the victory to journalists who have been persecuted for doing their jobs by the Salvadoran president. "And I encourage them to keep going."

Duran said he plans to keep working. "I think it's going to be very important for me to continue my work, maybe now with a bit more confidence and freedom." He said he loves doing his work and wants to keep helping his community and developing his career.

Minutes after hanging up the phone with a reporter Thursday, Duran began a Facebook Live broadcast from a job fair for the charity Goodwill Industries. He interviewed a Spanish-speaking staffer with Goodwill who highlighted benefits for new employees, including a $1,000 signing bonus. Duran encouraged people to come apply for jobs. Then he closed the broadcast:

"Thank you for trusting Memphis Noticias."

Micaela Watts is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal and can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.

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.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Manuel Duran, arrested Spanish-language reporter, wins asylum case