“We feel like we can breathe again,” Gutierrez told CNN.
“Our life has meaning again after being in that concentration camp where there are many people are held captive by the current administration’s immigration policies,” he said.
The Gutierrezes have been fighting an uphill battle for asylum since they first presented themselves to US Customs officers in June 2008. Gutierrez says he fled political persecution in Mexico and sought asylum in the US. What has followed are two detention stints and a lengthy court battle with the federal government.
Edward Beckett is among a team of lawyers and advocates defending Gutierrez in a civil rights suit against the Department of Homeland Security. The El Paso attorney questions the motives behind the government’s initial apprehension of his client and his eventual release this week. “It was done intentionally so they could avoid giving us more documents which makes us even more suspicious,” says Beckett, referring to government documents on the Gutierrezes’ detention.
Becket considers this week’s development a win for his client but knows the fight isn’t over with the Trump administration narrowing the path to asylum.
Suspicions arise in legal fight
The release of the father and son pair came as ICE was ordered to provide more documentation explaining why the two were detained in the first place.
Beckett told CNN that as a result of a Freedom of Information request by the National Press Club, which had been supporting Gutierrezes’ case since they were detained, the legal team obtained redacted internal ICE emails. Beckett believes that the unredacted correspondence would show a coordinated conspiracy to detain Emilio Gutierrez on the basis of his public, vocal criticism of the asylum process in the United States. Beckett and his team also submitted evidence that they argued shows that ICE has previously targeted five other immigrant activists.
When Beckett and the legal team raised this issue in their arguments for the father and son’s release, federal judge David Guaderrama zeroed in on it in a recent order. Judge Guarerrama wrote that “the evidence could establish that [the government] retaliated against immigrant activists who criticized the government’s policies.”
Guaderrama then ordered the government to provide unredacted versions of the documents, calling the possibility of such a conspiracy “a genuine issue of material fact.”
“If [the government] did retaliate against [the Gutierrezes] for that reason, they restricted [the Gutierrezes’] free speech rights because of the content and message of Mr. Gutierrez-Soto’s political speech.”
But just a few days before the scheduled hearing where the government would have to provide the documentation, the Gutierrezes were released. This means that there’s a chance that the government will not have to produce the documents.
“Today they had to hand over a bunch of documents instead they handed over Emilio to moot out the claims we alleged in the lawsuit,” Beckett told CNN.
“It seems telling that ICE chose to release us rather than have to go back before a judge and disclose their documents,” Gutierrez told CNN. “What do they have to hide?”
CNN has reached out to ICE for response but received no response.
