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| Latino Journalist Manuel Duran reports from an action, minutes before he was arrested in Memphis Photo by Moore Media Images |
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| Why did Multi-Agency Gang Unit choose Manuel Duran? Photo by Moore Media Images |
“SPLC successfully filed a motion to
reopen his immigration case,” said attorney Christy Swatzell of Latino Memphis.
The Atlanta Executive Office for
Immigration Review, a division of the Department of Justice, will review the
motion.
“Latino Memphis and the SPLC plan to give
every last effort to fight his deportation, but there are no guarantees,”
Swatzell said.
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| Officer waves away our camera while roughly arresting Yuleiny Escobar Photo by Moore Media Images |
“It is important to remember that without
the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office continued cooperation with ICE, Mr. Duran
would not be fighting for his freedom from behind barbed wire, hundreds of
miles from his home in Memphis,” Swatzell said.
Meanwhile, supporters are planning a candlelight vigil in Memphis for Tuesday night at 6 at El Mercadito, 3766 Ridgeway Road.
BIZARRE ARREST
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| Bill Stegall as ICE agent actor, "prisoner" Yuleiny Escobar Photo by Moore Media Images |
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| "Chain gang" of ICE "prisoners" Photo by Moore Media Images |
Duran was fast-tracked for
deportation by the Trump administration, which likely has begun targeting
journalists among its harsh immigration policies, and sent directly to LaSalle
Detention Center in Jena, LA, bypassing the routine steps of being detained in
a Memphis facility for a few days, then transported to a facility in Mason,
Tennessee, about 30 miles outside Memphis.
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| Officer grabs Zyanya Cruz Photo by Moore Media Images |
Sources advised us that orders specifically
to seize Duran had come from “the top,” meaning high up in Washington. Other
reports indicate that the Trump administration is gathering intelligence on
journalists who cover political subjects that negatively portray Trump and his
policies. We believe it is likely that Duran was targeted while he was on the
street – not just after he was arrested – while FBI and other federal agencies
were in Memphis for the commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder
April 4, 1968.
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| Mayor Jim Strickland faces an angry crowd Photo by Moore Media Images |
Strickland did not say a word, and after
he was scalded in remarks by Edie Love of Standing Up for Racial Justice,
Strickland turned away from the crowd and went inside the warmer confines of City Hall.
Although Duran’s family had posted bond
at about 9 Tuesday night, he was held in custody – the only one of nine
defendants to not be released after Tuesday’s street theater. Female actors were chained together and led
by an ICE agent actor to call attention to forced labor put upon persons who
are imprisoned as allegedly being undocumented immigrants.
DOING
HIS JOB
Duran was not acting in a disorderly
manner or disrupting traffic or anyone, as we personally witnessed, while he
filmed actors after they had crossed Poplar Avenue at a crosswalk, then were
heading east on the sidewalk.
Defense attorney Ann Schiller gathered
video evidence and presented it to the Shelby County District Attorney’s office
Thursday morning. The prosecutor agreed that there was not sufficient evidence
to prosecute the charge, Schiller said, and the charges were dropped.
Attorney General Amy Weirich, in a rare
move, put out a statement about the suddenly high-profile case:
CASE DISMISSED
“This office has
dismissed misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of a
highway or passageway filed Tuesday against Manuel Duran. There was not sufficient
evidence to go forward with prosecution. This ends any legal issues Mr. Duran
has with this office."
Duran was brought from the jail to court
on Wednesday morning, but the only “offer” on the table from the prosecutor’s
office at that time was a guilty plea. Since there was already a 48-hour
detainer warrant in place, Schiller asked to put off Duran’s arraignment until
Thursday, reasoning that the additional day to work out a better deal would
still come within the 48-hour window.
“He was not even part of the protest,”
Schiller said. “He was not rude to officers. He was not fighting them.
“All of a sudden, for some reason, they
take him into custody.”
FORCED
PRISON LABOR
Activists, including the Memphis
Coalition of Concerned Citizens, had helped to organize the action to bring
attention to private prisons’ profit motives in housing ICE detainees, even
allegedly hiring them out for pennies on the day to corporations such as
Victoria’s Secret, Sprint and Wal-Mart.
“This was a peaceful demonstration,”
Schiller said. “What would have happened if the police had let them finish
walking down the sidewalk? I can’t give you a reason why he got taken.”
Schiller and Division 7 Judge Bill
Anderson said there appeared to be two plainclothes ICE agents inside the courtroom when Duran’s case was adjudicated.
“We are not holding him on an ICE hold,”
Ferrell said Thursday morning before Duran’s case was dismissed. “We are
holding him on charges by MPD. We don’t hold people on ICE detainers.”
After Duran’s case had been dismissed,
Farrell said, “I understand there was an ICE hold.” Farrell had failed to mention
that when we first spoke. Nonetheless, ICE agents snatched him fairly soon
after his case was disposed of, presumably before he would have been processed
out of custody under normal conditions.
“There does not appear they (local law
enforcement) are required to hold persons on a detainer warrant,” said
Swatzell. “There is nothing that
requires them (Shelby County sheriff) to cooperate with ICE.”
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