The Spanish-language reporter will soon mark a full year behind bars as he fights deportation.

He was transferred in February to an Alabama jail that houses immigration detainees under federal contract.

Duran's fiancee said the jail doesn't give inmates enough to eat and that Duran is losing weight.

A former sheriff over the jail took more than $750,000 meant for jail food and kept it for himself. Under the current sheriff, some jail food money is still being used for other purposes.

On Wednesday, Memphis Spanish-language news reporter Manuel Duran will mark a full year behind bars — first in the Shelby County jail, then in various immigration detention centers.

As Duran continues to fight deportation to his native El Salvador, immigration authorities have placed him in an Alabama jail formerly run by the "Beach House sheriff," the man who used a legal loophole to take more than $750,000 in inmate food money for his own benefit.

Duran has lost a dramatic amount of weight since he was transferred Feb. 14 from a Louisiana lockup to the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama, which serves tiny food portions, his fiancee, Melisa Valdez, said.

"I don't know how much you know about Etowah, but it is basically hell," Valdez said. "It is true that the portions are so small that they wouldn't even feed like a small child."

Valdez said Duran is surviving by buying items available at a jail commissary, mostly junk food such as Doritos chips. She sends him the money.

Last year, then-Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin admitted to pocketing inmate food money for his personal use. An old Alabama law allows sheriffs to keep "leftover" state money that's allocated to feed inmates in county jails.

The news outlet AL.com reported Entrekin bought a $740,000 beach house and that he apparently could afford it through aggressive cost-cutting that led to "nightmare" jail conditions, including poor food and severe overcrowding.

A new sheriff took office in January, but an advocacy group says food problems at the jail continue.

Appeal still pending; bail denied

Duran, 43, had worked for years as an on-air personality for Spanish-language radio stations in Memphis. More recently he had switched to running his own news outlet, Memphis Noticias, and had interviewed the Memphis mayor and police director.

On April 3, 2018, Duran was conducting a live internet broadcast of an immigration protest outside the criminal justice center at 201 Poplar Ave. Some of the demonstrators had blocked another street earlier in the day. When demonstrators slowly began crossing Poplar Avenue, Memphis police began making arrests. Duran was arrested, too.

The local prosecutor's office quickly dropped charges against Duran. But Duran was transferred to immigration custody, based on a 2007 deportation order issued when he missed a date in Atlanta immigration court.

Duran's legal team says he never got notice to go to court that day, and that worsening conditions in El Salvador mean he could be killed if he were sent back to that country.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and Latino Memphis have joined many other individuals and journalism organizations in pressing for Duran's release. But he's faced many setbacks, including an immigration judge's denial of bond during a January hearing.

On March 26, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta sent Duran's case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Virginia, an entity that had previously ruled against him. One of Duran's lawyers, Gracie Willis, said the board could take months to make a decision.

A cheap place to keep detainees

ICE spokesman Bryan D. Cox confirmed that Duran was transferred to the Etowah County Detention Center in February. The county jail houses immigration detainees under a federal contract.

Cox said ICE uses the facility to house immigration detainees with long-term, complex appeals. The reasons: Detention centers in Louisiana offer better access to immigration courts, and moving detainees such as Duran out of Louisiana frees up space for detainees who have immigration court dates coming up, Cox said.

Also, housing a person at Etowah County costs less: about $45 per detainee per day, compared with costs in the $60 range in Louisiana detention centers and an average of about $100 in ICE facilities nationwide, Cox said.

Cox said Duran is in the country unlawfully and is still subject to the final deportation order from 2007.

“If (the deportation order) were to be vacated we’re starting from square one, but that’s not the case. This is a person who is engaged in appeals, but he remains subject to a final order of removal.”

Cox says because of the final order, ICE can't release Duran.

Willis, the attorney, said ICE could release Duran at any time. “It’s called an order of supervision. They are used fairly frequently.”

Immigrants under orders of supervision are required to check in with ICE, sometimes for years.

'Not fit for human consumption'

The ICE spokesman said the Etowah County jail has been repeatedly inspected and found to meet ICE standards.

In 2016, ICE's own inspectors found 18 deficiencies at Etowah, documenting food portions that sometimes were too small for calorie count standards, lack of cold weather clothes, and several other problems. That was an increase from seven deficiencies the inspectors found in 2013.

An inspection in July by outside consultants working for ICE found no deficiencies.

Former inmates who had worked in the jail's kitchen told AL.com last year they served cheap, dangerous food, including mysterious meat — possibly turkey — labeled "Not Fit For Human Consumption."

Though the Alabama law allows sheriffs to take leftover state food money, the former sheriff might have broken laws by taking federal money meant to feed immigration detainees, AL.com reported.

The former sheriff told AL.com in July that a state agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General had opened investigations into use of funds. A spokeswoman for the inspector general's office declined to comment Monday.

Last year, Jonathon W. Horton ran for election as Etowah County sheriff, promising not to keep jail food funds. He defeated the "Beach House sheriff" and was sworn in on Jan. 14.

However, complaints about rotten food and small portions in the Etowah County jail have persisted, said Jessica Vosburgh, executive and legal director with Adelante Alabama Worker Center in the Birmingham area.

Vosburgh represents immigration detainees in the jail and said she visits once or twice a month. “My sense is that very little has changed."

Her organization is part of the "Shut Down Etowah" campaign, which argues jail conditions are so bad that the only way to fix them is to close the facility.

At least some jail food money has been diverted to other purposes under the new sheriff's administration.

In February, the Etowah County Commission approved the new sheriff's request to transfer about $34,000 from the food preparation budget to pay for a new sheriff's department vehicle, The Gadsden Times reported.

The new sheriff didn't reply to phone messages Friday and Monday.

Alabama law still allows sheriffs to take leftover state money meant for inmates. The Alabama legislature is considering a new law to stop the practice.

Indefinite detention

Meanwhile, Duran's time behind bars continues.

"They can hold him indefinitely," said Valdez, his fiancee. "We know people who have been at Etowah for five years."

Duran's supporters are planning a vigil to mark the one-year anniversary of his arrest at 6 p.m. Wednesday at El Mercadito de Memphis, a shopping mall in Hickory Hill.

Investigative reporter Daniel Connolly welcomes tips and comments from the public. Reach him at 901-529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.

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