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Manuel Duran, the Memphis Spanish-language reporter whose arrest at a 2018 immigration protest led to more than 465 days behind bars and sparked international attention, lawsuits and protests in Memphis, has now won his political asylum case.
For years, Duran had faced the threat of deportation to his native El Salvador and had argued that if he were deported, he could be killed.
Duran had been free on bond since 2019 and continued to work for his online news outlet, Memphis Noticias. The Wednesday decision by a Memphis Immigration Court judge now means Duran has a clear path toward long-term legal status in the United States.
There was no guarantee that Duran would win his case — between 2001 and the present, 69% of asylum claims were denied in the Memphis Immigration Court, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Denial rates vary widely from judge to judge, with some judges in Memphis and across the U.S. at times denying about 100% of cases in a given year.
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