Memphis reporter Manuel Duran now in Louisiana immigration detention center, lawyer says

Manuel Duran, the reporter for Spanish-language media arrested this week while doing a live Internet video of a Memphis protest, has been transferred to an immigration detention center in Louisiana, his attorney said Friday.

Duran is currently in the LaSalle ICE Processing Center, a privately-run detention center in Jena, Louisiana, said Christina Swatzell, a staff attorney with Latino Memphis who is representing Duran in the immigration case.

Jena is about 300 miles south of Memphis and reachable in roughly six hours by car.

Now that Duran has been taken into immigration custody, he could face more days in detention and eventual deportation. His attorney can ask an immigration judge to grant him bail and later to allow him to stay in the country.

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Duran, 42, is from El Salvador and has lived in the Memphis area for several years, working as an on-air personality for Spanish-language radio stations and more recently running his own online news outlet, Memphis Noticias.

On Thursday, a prosecutor announced in local court that the state was dropping criminal charges against Duran related to the arrest at the protest.

Two men in plainclothes, possibly Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, had watched from the back of Judge Bill Anderson's courtroom during the appearance at the criminal justice center at 201 Poplar.

"Unfortunately, ICE was waiting for him in the courtroom," advocacy group Latino Memphis tweeted Thursday afternoon. "He is currently with ICE."

ICE spokesman Bryan D. Cox said the agency took Duran into custody Thursday following his release from the local jail. Cox said Duran is living in the country illegally.

"Mr. (Duran) was ordered removed from the United States by a federal immigration judge in January 2007 after failing to appear for his scheduled court date. He has been an immigration fugitive since that time," Cox wrote in an email.

In a phone interview Friday, Cox said Duran has a "final order of removal" pending against him. "Removal" means deportation.

“He’s been taken into custody to process him for removal," Cox said. He acknowledged detainees have a number of ways to appeal such an order.

Swatzell, Duran's attorney, said she doesn't want to comment on Duran's case until she's spoken with him.

Supporters released pictures of Duran with people he's met through work, including Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell and former Memphis Mayor A C Wharton.

They are circulating petitions for ICE to release him.

“It is unacceptable and un-American for a journalist to be arrested for doing his job," Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, policy director at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said in a statement.

"While we’re grateful that all charges were dropped, we’re deeply outraged and disappointed by the role of local law enforcement in facilitating the possible deportation of a local journalist."

The statement also included a quote from Gabriela Marquez-Benitez at Detention Watch Network: "This clearly shows that Shelby County local officials are complicit with and are working hand-in-hand with ICE, a government agency that has a track record of egregious human rights abuses.”

The local jail is run by the Shelby County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's spokesman Earle Farrell said Thursday, "As long as I've been here, we've never held anyone for ICE."

He also said the jail would have released Duran on bond earlier after his family paid the fee, but that he refused to sign the relevant papers. Duran's defense lawyer said Duran refused to sign because he didn't understand the document.

Farrell said the department would make jail officials available for further comment in coming days.

Duran was arrested Tuesday during a protest outside the criminal justice center at 201 Poplar.

Ironically, that protest focused on immigration detention and cooperation between local authorities and ICE. Protesters had put on costumes to play the role of an ICE agent leading a group of chained prisoners.

Memphis police began making arrests as the demonstrators slowly crossed Poplar Avenue. Some of the same demonstrators had blocked a road near a FedEx facility earlier in the day and police said this showed their intent to break the law.

The demonstrators argue the arrests were unnecessary. Of the nine people arrested, eight have made bond and only Duran remains in custody.

The arrests played out in front of reporters from big news outlets in Memphis for the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Duran was live-streaming the protest on the Internet at the time of the arrest.

Police said he refused orders to get out of the street.

Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich issued a statement earlier Thursday: “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."

That statement went out to news media about 1:30 p.m. A short time later, word spread that he was in immigration custody.

Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.