New asylum hearing ordered for Mexican journalist held in US

HOUSTON – A new asylum hearing has been ordered for an award-winning Mexican journalist detained in a remote Texas immigration facility.

No date has been set for Emilio Gutierrez-Soto’s new hearing ordered by the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals.

An immigration judge in July denied his asylum request and ordered him deported, but the appeals board halted his removal in December pending its decision. Since then, he’s remained in an El Paso immigration detention centre.

Gutierrez fled to the U.S. a decade ago after writing about alleged corruption in the Mexican military. His work caused his name to end up on a hit list.

Gutierrez in October accepted the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award from the National Press Club in Washington on behalf of Mexico’s journalists.