♪ [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica this is democracy now! >> i would want that above all else justice be done -- that these assailants be arrested. it is not possible for them to go on killing like it is nothing. they have no respect. six-year-old children are traumatized because of the way my husband was killed -- where we were, how it was done. amy: 46 journalists were killed this year, some were covering war, others murdered in retaliation for their reporting. another 20 were killed under unconfirmed circumstances. few if any of the murders have been solved. meanwhile, a record 262 journalists were imprisoned around the world, with turkey,

china and egypt topping the list for the second year in a row. we'll look at the 25th annual survey by the committee to protect journalists, and get an update on the case of mexican journalist emilio gutierrez, who is fighting his deportation from a u.s. detention center in el paso after receiving death threats for reporting on alleged corruption in the mexican military. emilio: it would appear i would need to enter the united states with bullet holes on the front and back of my body, or mutilated, which institutional criminal group, the mexican government, says. he was honored by the national press club in october. lastly, its executive director visited him in detention along with texas democratic

beto o'rourk. we'll speak with bill mccarren, executive director of the national press club, who went to -- and plan exit from our prison time interview. but first, "homeland security goes abroad. not everyone is grateful." a new investigation reveals how the department of homeland security has thousands of dhs and tsa agents stationed in more than 70 countries around the world. some countries are accusing the u.s. of trying to export its travel ban. we'll speak with new york times reporter ron nixon about this story, and during this busy travel season, we'll look at a $1 billion airport facial scanning program being used to identify travelers on flights from boston, las vegas, miami, new york's john f. kennedy, washington dulles, both houston airports, chicago o'hare and atlanta. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

the state of alabama has officially declared democrat doug jones the winner of the highly controversial special us senate race two weeks ago. on thursday morning, a judge blocked the lawsuit of jones' rival, republican roy moore, who was claiming voter fraud and demanding a new election. this is alabama secretary of state john merrill. sec. merrill: i would hope judge moore would look at what we had done, and if he would have a personal conversation with me, i would be happy to point to him, and many people outside of the sound of my voice right now about what our process and procedures are, because i do not think that anybody has a doubt that they have been objective and they have looked at this, and they know what has occurred is legitimate. amy: african american voters helped propel doug jones to victory by more than 20,000 votes, after at least nine women

accused roy moore of sexually harassing them or assaulting them when they were teenagers, one as young as 14 years old. as record-breaking cold spell continues to freeze parts of the northeast and midwest united states, president trump took to twitter to try to use this week's cold weather to cast doubt upon many decades of scientific evidence about global warming. trump tweeted, quote, "in the east, it could be the coldest new year's eve on record. perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old global warming that our country, but not other countries, was going to pay trillions of dollars to protect against. bundle up!" trump tweeted. scientists roundly refuted and ridiculed trump's tweet, with one climate scientist calling it "an ignorant misconception." president obama's u.s. climate change envoy todd stern responded quote "of course it sometimes gets very cold. five minutes' worth of education would tell you that what matters are global averages, and those

are going implacably up." california congress person ted lieu condemned trump, tweeting , quote "either @realdonaldtrump , doesn't understand the science behind climate change, or he is intentionally misleading the american people." the record temperature has slammed parts of the net estate, including in minnesota, where temperature hit a record 37 degrees fahrenheit below zero earlier this week. the trump administration is slated to roll back safety regulations for offshore drilling that were imposed after the 2010 deepwater horizon disaster in the gulf of mexico, which killed 11 people and caused the most devastating oil spill in u.s. history. the interior department, under ryan zinke, is considering a proposal that would scrap the obama-era regulations, which it claims would save the oil

industry more than $200 million over a decade. environmental groups widely opposed the blowback of the rules. the center for biological diversity said, quote "reversing , offshore safety rules isn't just deregulation, it's willful ignorance." president trump complained about special counsel robert mueller's ongoing investigation into whether the trump campaign colluded with russia, telling the new york times during an impromptu interview thursday at mar-a-lago that the investigation, quote "makes the , country look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position." during the interview at the trump international golf club, trump also repeated 16 times that there had not been any collusion between his campaign and russia. russia has accused the united states of breaking an arms control treaty by selling two missile defense systems to japan. russia's accusation comes after

japan said it would buy two of the u.s. missile defense systems, amid rising tensions in the region over north korea's nuclear program. this comes as russia has also accused the united states of interfering in russia's upcoming presidential elections, after the u.s. condemned russia's decision to ban opposition candidate alexei navalny from running. in new york city, at least 12 people have been killed and four more are critically injured, after a fire broke out in an apartment near the bronx zoo. it's the worst fire in new york city since 1990. this is new york city mayor bill de blasio. mayor de blasio: this is the worst fire tragedy we have seen in the city in at least a quarter century based on the information we have now. this will rank as one of the worst losses of life to a fire in many, many years.

based onoment, preliminary information, and again, there will be more information coming in in the next few hours, but based on the information now, i am very sorry to report that 12 new yorkers are dead, including one child as young as one year old. amy: meanwhile, in india, at least people have been killed 14 and 50 more were injured after a fire tore through a restaurant in mumbai early friday morning. one of the survivors said the fire engulfed the restaurant in a matter of seconds. criminal charges have now been filed against the restaurant's owner over the lack of adequate emergency exits and evacuation instructions. in yemen, the united nations says two u.s.-backed saudi-led airstrikes on tuesday killed at least 68 civilians, including eight children. one of the airstrikes hit a crowded market in the southwestern province of taiz. the second strike hit a farm in western yemen, killing 14 members of the same family. in syria, about a dozen critically ill patients have been evacuated from eastern

ghouta, a suburb of damascus. eastern ghouta has been besieged by syrian government forces since 2013. the majority of the critically ill patients evacuated this week were children. there are currently about 400,000 civilians in eastern -- there where supplies of , medicine, food, and water are dwindling. meanwhile, in more news on syria, turkish president recep tayyip erdogan denounced syrian leader bashar al-assad as a terrorist mass murderer, and said there's no place for him in a post-conflict syria. erdogan's comments wednesday represent a shift away from the softer stance turkey has taken toward assad in recent years. in the west african country of liberia, supporters of ex-footballer george weah celebrated as presidential election results showed him far ahead of his rival, vice president joseph boakai. the former football star will now succeed ellen johnson sirleaf, who was the first woman elected head of state in africa. this year's election marks the first peaceful transition of

power in liberia since 1944. a 16-year-old palestinian girl will face assault charges in an israeli military court, after a video of her slapping an israeli soldier went viral. ahed tamimi slapped the israeli soldier two weeks ago, after israeli troops shot her 14-year-old brother in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet and fired tear gas canisters into her family's home in the israeli occupied west bank. while the video of tamimi slapping the soldier has gone viral, mondoweiss reports that the soldier actually slapped the 16-year-old girl first, causing her to slap back. this is her father, activist bassem tamimi. bassem tamimi: they saw the desire, to slap the

opposition, and expressed the experience of the arabic, palestinian, and human streak that decided to erupt against the reality of injustice in a moment of being broken. amy: back in the united states, in pennsylvania, professor george chickarello maher has resigned from drexel university, after receiving months of death threats and online harassment by white supremacists and right-wing media outlets. chickarello maher faced the torrent of criticism for posting whiteaking about supremacy, the u.s. military, and how trumpism was helping fuel the high numbers of mass shootings carried out by white men across the united states. this is chickarello maher, speaking after suspected shooter james paddock, a 64-year-old white man, killed 59 people, including himself, in a mass shooting in las vegas in october. chickarello maher: i think this is a case we need

to grapple with -- what is it that makes wightman so prone to this kind of behavior, and what might be going on today in our country where people are stoking a victim complex among white men. what might be happening today to encourage this behavior and radical as is kind of actions? i was immediately subject to a torrent of abuse and threats from right-wing ". amy: -- outlets. amy: this fall, george chickarello maher was banned from campus after speaking out about the mass shootings, a move drexel said was for his own safety. on thursday, chickarello maher wrote on facebook that his situation was "unsustainable" and, quote "staying at drexel in , the eye of this storm has become detrimental to my own writing, speaking, and organizing," he wrote. and in new york city, anti-police brutality activist erica garner has suffered "major brain damage," following an asthma-induced heart attack over the weekend. while some news outlets reported on thursday she was brain dead with no chance of recovery, erica's family members rejected those accounts, saying they are

still holding out hope and that the doctors have registered some brain activity. erica helped lead the struggle for justice for her father, eric garner, who was killed when police officers in staten island wrestled him to the ground, pinned him down and applied a fatal chokehold in 2014. his final words -- "i can't breathe," which he repeated 11 times. in august, erica garner gave birth to her second child, a boy named after his late father. doctors say the pregnancy strained her heart. this is erica garner, speaking on democracy now! in 2016. erica garner: well, when you deal with grief, you talk about grief, and how regular families deal with it -- families have problems. families have trouble coping with it, but it makes it so different because now we are part of this on a national

scale. mytill haven't except that father is gone, even though i talk about my dad, but i talk about him in a case study. for the latest updates you can , and my website or twitter you know, you can see i am possibly reading articles and doing research on my dad's case, but i'm not taking care of me. amy: to see all of our interviews with erica gonna, you org.go to democracynow. and those are some of the headlines. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show with a new investigation that reveals how the department of homeland security is increasingly going global, with thousands of agents from the department of homeland security and the transportation security administration stationed in more than 70 countries around the world. hundreds more dhs workers are deployed at sea on coast guard

ships or in the skies on surveillance planes. stationing ice overseas is reportedly about four times as expensive as a domestic post. now, some countries are accusing dhs of attempting to export the united states' restrictive immigration laws, with one german politician saying dhs's interrogations and detentions at foreign airports constitute an extrajudicial travel ban. andrej hunko, a member of the germany's left party, accused the united states of moving its "immigration controls to european countries." well for more we're joined in washington, d.c. by the , journalist who broke this story. ron nixon is the new york times' homeland security correspondent. his piece is headlined, "homeland security goes abroad. not everyone is grateful." tell us what you found. ron nixon: good morning, amy,

and thanks for having me on the show. the article is about the global footprint of the department of homeland security, and the reason they are going to these countries is to attack whatever threats, be they terrorist threats, human traffickers, human smugglers, or, you know, international criminal organizations at the source. so, they have stationed these people abroad. as you mentioned, there are tout 2000 from ice agents tsa, to the secret service that are stationed in about 70 countries. in addition, there are people on coast guard cutters that are selling around thousands of miles away and customs and border protection, obviously, has these surveillance planes that fly primarily off the coast of south america and the caribbean sea looking for drug smugglers the biggest thing is

-- smugglers. the biggest thing is those of people prominently in these places. their people from the department of homeland security deployed on a temporary basis, training, and doing investigations in a number of other activities in these countries, and as you mentioned, there is some pushback from some countries who feel as though they are a little uncomfortable with having u.s. law enforcement on their soil, particularly some of the european countries. about -- well,lk you just flew in from canada earlier this morning, ron, where homeland security employees are stationed. you reported canadians flooded the prime minister's office in august with letters and emails protesting legislation to allow u.s. officers -- customs officers stationed at canadian airports and train stations to question, search and detain

canadian citizens. unnamed government officials told the canadian broadcasting corporation that the volume of mail received was unprecedented and took officials by surprise. , this measure ultimately passed earlier this month? ron: yes. there is a program called preclearance that has existed in canada since 1952, and essentially what it is is instead of going through customs once you land in the united states, you go through customs there. so, customs and border protection has customs officers stationed at canadian airports. about 80 -- i believe it is about eight canadian airport -- canadian airports. customs that are so when you land in the u.s. you are basically a domestic passenger. increasingly, this program has been seen as a counterterrorism program to stop people from coming to the u.s. so you don't have to deal with them once they

are here. you deal with them abroad. -23 is thein canada, c name of the bill that passed -- before, if you are a canadian citizen, you went to preclearance, and you decided i don't like the questioning so i am going to leave, you could leave, and there is nothing the u.s. customs officers could do. under this new legislation, they can question you. they can even detain you. they cannot arrest you, but they can detain you if they have detainng, and they can you until the canadian law enforcement officials get there. so, as you reference, there was outcry from people who were saying why are we letting u.s. law enforcement officers do this on canadian soil to canadian citizens? amy: can you talk about the

number of ice agents who are abroad? 300 yes, there are about ice agents abroad in about 50 different countries, and these are primarily people from homeland security investigations, which is a part of ice, the investigative wing of ice. what they do is target transnational criminal organizations. they do visa security investigations for people who are applying for visas to come to the country. they will background those people, do investigations, to make sure those people are not terrorists or human smugglers. that is potentially why those folks are there. again, the purpose is to attack the problem at its source rather than waiting for it to come to the u.s.. amy: the concerns about dhs agents being placed abroad when a number are needed at ports in the united states?

ron: yes, so the union that represents customs officers and saying there is a shortage of customs officers at the ports of entry. there are more than 300 ports of entry here in the united states. so, the union that represents these officers is saying before you talk about sending more people abroad, let's make sure we have the people here to actually make sure that we can make sure drugs don't come into the country, or that other threats don't make it through the ports of entry. e.a. drugok at the d. reports, the majority of drugs that come to this country actually come through the ports of entry. amy: you write about a situation in tanzania where eyes investigators were accused in may of using mafia-style tactics. what happened? ron: there was this

international drug organization based out of tanzania and also operated in south africa. the leader of it, they sourced heroine from pakistan, and afghanistan, got cocaine from south america, and sold it internationally. one of their members was caught at one of the houston airport smuggling heroin. overce has jurisdiction any kind of international crime that crosses the border. this guy who ran the organization was placed on the treasury department's kingpin list -- drug traffickers who were designated kingpins, and the department would freeze their assets. the controversy you mentioned is that the u.s. asked and was

granted the right of extradition to extradite this guy and several of his workers to be not states to face charges, but they had an appeal before a court in , and the attorney who represents them, and several people in tanzania, too, accused the u.s. of taking these guys before their appeal was actually heard. amy: ron nixon, you also write about the concern of a number of countries that trump is exporting his travel ban. explain. ron: yeah, so, that was something that actually came up year andd earlier this one of the preclearance facilities in europe where an irish citizen was not allowed to ward a plane to come -- board a plane to come to the u.s., and several lawmakers there accused

the u.s. of basically using a preclearance to enforce the travel ban that the president had signed earlier in the year. and that has been an ongoing criticism, but it is even more so because of the administration 's travel ban. to ask you about another article you wrote. during this busy holiday season this month senators mike lee, a , republican, and edward markey, a democrat, called for a halt to the expansion of a $1 billion airport facial scanning program that the department of homeland security uses to identify travelers on some flights that depart from nine u.s. airports -- boston, las vegas, miami, new york's jfk washington , dulles, both houston airports, chicago o'hare and atlanta. congress has approved the program for use on non-u.s.

citizens, but never expressly authorized its use on americans. in a letter to homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen, the senators asked for explanation for why dhs believes it has the authority to proceed. the senators also asked dhs to provide data about the accuracy of the scans and cited a study by the center on privacy and technology that you reported on, which said the technology had high error rates and was subject to bias, because the scans often fail to properly identify women and african-americans. you cite harrison rudolph, an associate at the center and an author of the report, saying , quote "it's telling that , d.h.s. cannot identify a single benefit actually resulting from airport face scanned at the departure gate." explain what they are -- what people experiencing some of these airports like jfk or the houston airport. ron: so, this program is something that has actually been law since 1996 when congress entry/exitan

program, and it took on new meaning after 9/11 because two of the nine/11 hijackers overstayed their visa. this program is to identify what people leave this country. there has been an issue with these overstays that people who come here and overstay their visas -- and actually most of the people who are undocumented in the country now are actually people who overstayed their visas. hijackers,the 9/11 congress has authorized this program to be able to track when people leave. so, you get your visa. you come here. the track where you come. now they know that you are gone. so, the issue that the center pointed out is that the facial scans that they use are also

being used on americans, and this was supposed to identify foreign nationals who are leaving to make sure that they, again, don't overstay their visas. the issue -- well, you can't separate out american some other people when they are getting on a plane, and you do want to verify that they are indeed american, but the information, according to customs and border protection, the information they collect is used differently for americans than it is for foreign nationals. they are saying once they identify you are american, that is the end of it. they don't keep additional data on it. what the center says in the report that you referenced is that congress never authorized them to actually do facial scanning of american citizens, and there has not been -- they have not gone through a rulemaking process laying out

what they do with this data, and that is the real issue there. there has not been any will making on this. cpt they don't know what actually does with this information that they collect. an executive order, your report, signed in january by president trump, calls for homeland security officials to speed up the diplomate of the biometric system at airports. what rights do people have, and explain exactly what these look like, these biometric -- kind of, the system. can they say no? now, custom border protection says you have the right to opt out. you can say i don't want them to do this type of scam, then they will just physically look at your documents and try to verify your identity another way. what the center is saying is

that that is not explicit. they do not tell you you can opt out. they simply put things on their website or they will hand people these cards, but it is not explicit saying you can opt out. in terms of what they look like, some of it, sibley, is a kiosk. -- simply is a kiosk. you put your document down, if that's a photo of you, and it matches it against information that cbp has of people on that flight. the other method is that they are handheld devices with cbp customs officers will stand there and gather biometrics. some airlines who are partnering with them are building it into -- so, when you walk up to have your ticket scanned to get on the plane, it simply snapped the photo of you there and matches

it against the photos that cbp has two, again, authenticate who you are, because the cbp contention is that biometric information cannot be safe the way that physical, paper documents can. amy: ron nixon, i want to to watch for being with us -- thank you for being with us. we will link to your pieces

as well as your piece, "facial scans at u.s. airports violate u.s. privacy, report says." when we come back, we will play more of our interview with emilio gutierrez. he has been jailed with his son oscar. he says if he is deported to mexico, he will be killed. then we will talk with the committee to protect journalists about the number of journalists and media workers that have been killed in prison around the world this year. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we we turn now to an update on the case of mexican

journalist emilio gutierrez, who is fighting his deportation from a u.s. detention center in el paso, along with his son. mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, and gutierrez and his son first sought asylum in the united states in 2008 after receiving death threats for reporting on alleged corruption in the mexican military. they were detained for seven months and eventually released to live in the united states while his asylum appeal was pending. they survived by operating a food truck in new mexico until last july. but after nearly a decade, gutierrez's asylum appeal was denied and earlier this month he was again detained. well this week, after a visit from texas democratic congressman beto o'rourk and a flurry of news reports, including here on democracy now!, the board of immigration appeals re-opened gutierrez's asylum case and vacated his deportation order, granting him a full stay of his removal order.

this means gutierrez cannot be deported, at the moment, and that the bia will now issue a new ruling. but gutierrez has still not been released. neither has a son. is emilio gutierrez speaking earlier this month in an exclusive jailhouse interview with juan gonzalez and me directly from detention, about what he fears will happen if he is deported. areio: well, if we deported, then obviously implies death. why? .e., under the department of homeland security of the united states, by law,

must give a report to the immigration authority of mexico and the consulate, and the immigration officials in mexico have no credibility. it is impossible to trust in them. to the contrary, many of those officials, many personnel at the consulate, or immigration service are caught up with organized crime, and organized crime is precisely the mexican government. givee government didn't its consent for criminal groups to work with impunity, certainly the conditions would be different, but the government of mexico facilitates the work of criminal groups who operate with total impunity. the government of mexico, we all know, is the most corrupt government in the hemisphere, and obviously enjoys no credibility. now, the conditions we find

jail ins at this i.c.e. el paso are truly denigrating. we have seen, my son and myself, most of the immigrants detained here are from central and south america -- the majority. we are not so many mexicans here at this jail. now, given the extreme poverty, well, of course, that his experience in mexico, but even more so in central and south america, for many of the persons detained it seems that the conditions are adequate, pleasant, but they are denigrating. the food is poor, nutritionally. [speaking spanish] pleasant atoes not all to eat the food here. the russians, the portions are

too small. immigration, the authorities here in the united states are saying you have no true proof, no documentary proof of your claims, or that no witnesses have appeared to back up your claims. how do you respond to that? [speaking spanish] emilio: i believe that the immigration authorities are an institution based on lies. it would appear that i would need to enter the united states with bullet holes on the front and back of my body or mutilated , which is what the institutional criminal group, the mexican government, generally does. amy: so, that is emilio gutierrez speaking directly from detention earlier this month to -- detention center in texas earlier this month.

since he received a full stay of deportation this week his followers are calling for his release, arguing he poses no threat to security, is not a flight risk, and faces health problems the longer he is held. for more, we're going to go to el paso first two gutierrez's lawyer, ed beckett. talk about what happened this week -- what is the decision that was made that would stop the deportation of emilio gutierrez, at least for now? : good morning. a pleasure to be here. reinstated his appeal, vacated the deportation order, and basically what it means is they will review his case against him they will allow him to file legal briefs. he will present his case to the board of immigration appeals so they can grant him asylum, agree with the judge, or send back the case to the judge to redo it.

if the court takes there are irregularities or that the judge's decision was erroneous. it is good news for him, but that ms. for him that he is being detained and treated -- but bad news for him that he is being detained and treated like a criminal. is emilio gutierrez soto as he accepted the john aubuchon press freedom award on behalf of mexico's journalists in october. he spoke alongside a translator. >> it is a constant source of pain for our families. emilio: [speaking spanish] >> lady impunity has not let go of our hand. [speaking spanish] while lady justice

prostitutes herself in the company of the government. >> [-- emilio: [speaking spanish] >> to again kill the freedom of expression. emilio: [speaking spanish] >> those who speak -- seek political asylum in countries like this, let the united states -- emilio: [in spanish] >> we encounter the decisions of immigration authorities. [speaking spanish] >> that barter away the international laws. amy: so, that is emilio gutierrez receiving [speaking tn press freedom award on behalf of mexico's journalists at the

national press club in washington, d.c.. for more i want to bring into the conversation bill mccarren, executive director of the national press club, which invited emilio gutierrez soto to accept that award. mccarren went to el paso earlier this month to visit gutierrez in detention. he also delivered to authorities boxes full of petitions that call for gutierrez to be released. welcome to democracy now. can you explain when you went to el paso, your visit with both emilio and oscar, then with iona: officials --i.c.e. officials. bill: sure. thank you for having me. to el paso, and we got to see emilio and oscar. i was accompanied by congressman beto o'rourke. it was an emotional meeting with

emilio in particular. he was agitated. he broke down a couple of times. he complained of health problems , which you discussed earlier, and we think, by the way, the diet might continue to high blood pressure. he said his arm was numb, he was not sleeping well, and i'm not a dr., but he seems to be having pts and those kinds of symptoms. he was depressed. the authorities did not let us see emilio and oscar at the same time. emilio had to exit the room and oscar entered. oscar seems healthy. he is very concerned about his father, of course, but in many ways he presents like any early -college aged kid you would meet. a great kid. it was an honor to see them, but it was upsetting to see them under those circumstances. then we filed for a meeting with

officials, as you indicated. amy: talk about how that meeting went, and did i.c.e. officials tell you that you should be toning it down, and explain what they met -- what they meant. bill: sure. we were there, among other things, to present conditions. we had at that point, 18,000 signatures. i believe it is close to 23,00wo emilio's case file. it was an important action for us. we did not know we would be able to meet with i.c.e.. during the meeting, there were five i.c.e. officials, the congress and, his staff, and ed attorney.lio's during the case we discussed the ruling, and the judge found that emilio did not present credible

evidence in his view about his journalistic activities, and did not suggest that he would be -- did not give adequate reason that he would be in danger if he returned to mexico, both of which we reject. -- object. through discussing this, we were told by one of the i.c.e. officials that we should turn it down. by that he meant take a call mark approach, don't question it is much, let the process work. my answer immediately was we were not there to tone it down. we were there to raise the issue of emilio's case, make sure everyone knew his name if possible, and everyone knew the circumstances that this was a journalist seeking asylum and was not been granted asylum. we know that the ice officials knew that we would have a news conference at 1:00 that day. this was a bit of a shot across the bow. later they chose in the press that we shouldd

tone it down or suggested that is not what they meant, but we were pretty clear that is what they meant. amy: why is this case so important to you, bill, as executive director of the national press club, and also, why is emilio gutierrez and his son oscar still being held in jail? bill: well, that last question answer is i do not know. as eduardo mentioned, they have no criminal record. they are not a threat to the community. the jail -- the facility is very crowded. 30 people as many as were released to humanitarian parole the week prior. so, there are a lot of people that make need to be in that facility. we do not think emilio and oscar are two of them. we are asking that they be released. aubuchonve emilio the

i would call your viewers attention to a recent report by the net in nations that came out december 4 -- the united nations in which david kay, a carnival person, and his staff, went to mexico and interview 250 -- credible person, and his staff, went to mexico to interview 2050 -- 250 journalist. have been 12 journalists killed, and none of the cases have been solved. some of the journalists killed were in a protection program operated by the mexican government. it

is returned to mexico. we are not buying that. we do not think it is an effective program. we are very concerned about violence against journalists everywhere, but in mexico. so, emilio is a great case for us to highlight. it is an unfortunate case. it is what we want to bring full attention to. the national press club is the world's leading professional organization for journalists, and this is what we do. we do it in iran, azerbaijan, other places, but i never thought we would have them do -- to fight a case like this in the united states. beckett, could you explain at this point with the appeals,g to the emilio is still being held? he has not committed a crime, and neither has his son. ed appeals, emilio is still being: yes, amye criminalization of asylum-seekers. the department of homeland security and i.c.e. is taken the position that if you seek asylum you seek a solid b should be treated like a criminal. there is no good reason to hold him. he meets all the criteria to be released. i think that going back to the

question that you asked about the media, i believe that with anddue respect, immigration customs enforcement is a bipolar organization. on the one hand, to my face, they would say we don't care about the media -- we don't care if you go to the media. on the other hand, privately, they say tone it down. this is a bipolar organization that wants to treat legitimate asylum persons like emilio like criminals, and congress is given them so much power, it is kind of like when police charges you with a crime and you never get to see the judge, and only the police get to decide when and how they are going to release you. the same thing with i.c.e.. since he entered legally, the law, the congress gave his power to i.c.e. basically they decide if they want to release him. they can release him on his own reconnaissance, in order of supervision -- they can put an

alternative to detention programs. the have a whole host of tools they can use, but they are choosing not to. we are shocked congress gave them so much unfettered discretion, and i think that is a bigger issue that i think congress needs to fix because this is an abuse of authority. amy: so, they could releasing today? ed: they could releasing right now if they wanted to. amy: bill mccarren, also the fact that emilio gutierrez is a journalist reporting on narco trafficking, its relationship with the mexican government, with president trump's professed concern about the drug war and narcotraffickers, you would think that journalists like emilio r critical -- are critical. bill: you would think so. there is plenty of need for good journalism in mexico, so emilio's voice and his outspoken

approach to problems in mexico, whether he is here or in mexico is valuable. i think it should be encouraged. we do think it is a dangerous ,lace for him now, and we think you know, he should not be returned, and we think that the united states policy should be all about trying to protect him. thatted to point out, amy, the washington post, in a editorial, called for asylum for emilio. so, when the judge is questioning whether or not emilio is a journalist, well, we are giving him an editorial, cad for asylum award. the washington post is calling for asylum for him. i do not think it is a question about whether or not he is a journalist and whether or not his voice is valuable or not. amy: i want to thank you for being with us. of course we will continue to follow this case. if you want to see, watch, listen, read our full interview inh emilio gutierrez soto

jail, you know passive, the interview one gonzales and i did, you can go to democracynow.org. bill mccarren, thank you for being with us. eduardo beckett, emilio's attorney, thanks so much for being with us. when we come back, the committee to protect journalists has come out with a report on imprisoned and detained journalists around the world. it is chilling. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

-- by santos a syria performing in our democracynow studios. i am amy goodman. we and today's show with the 25th annual survey from the committee to protect --rnalists, of journalists journalists of journalists killed and jailed around the world. this year the list of those killed includes 42 journalists and four media workers. some were covering war, others were murdered in retaliation for their reporting. another 20 were killed in circumstances that cpj cannot confirm were related to their work. a record 262 journalists were imprisoned around the world, with turkey, china and egypt topping the list for the second year in a row. few, if any of the murders are , solved.

this comes as president trump has waged a campaign to incite journalists with rhetoric -- waged a relentless campaign to discredit journalists in the united states often with rhetoric that could potentially incite his followers to violence. well for more we're joined by maria salazar-ferro, director of the committee to protect journalist's emergencies department. welcome to democracy now! talk about what you found, and also coming out of this interview with emilio gutierrez, can you talk about the dangers mexican journalists face? interviewmaria salazar-ferro: a. there is a record amount of journalists jailed around the world. about three quarters of journalists in prison around the bars one behind anti-state charges such as terrorism. interestingly, we noted this year there is a spike in charges

of false views in some of the top countries like turkey, china, and egypt. amy: in those three top countries, egypt, china, turkey, you are talking about fake news, something that president trump has been pushing around the net states, charging the media with putting out. maria: exactly. last year we documented nine cases. this year we documented 21 around the world on this charge, and we're talking about authoritarian governments, but they are holding onto any kind of reason to imprison journalists, and this kind of rhetoric coming out of president trump can embolden them in terms of jailing journalists who are critical of their governments. award-winning mexican reporter javier valdez was assassinated, dragged out of his car and shot 12 times, less

than a block from the office of -- office. the killing of valdez sparked widespread outrage across mexico. multiple mexican digital media outlets went on a 24-hour strike, refusing to publish anything but a black banner with the names of the journalists assassinated in mexico at the time. this is a clip of valdez's 2011 speech when he came to new york to receive the international press freedom award from the committee to protect journalists. >> i've been a journalist the past 21 years, and i have never enjoyed it so intently, nor with so many dangers. ierby are valdez -- jav valdez: [begin spanish] >> this is what most of the country is living with. one must protect itself from everything and everyone, and there are not options or

salvation, and often there is not anyone to turn to. award-winninghe mexican reporter javier valdez . in may, he was gunned down. maria. maria: this was a brutal killing , when they touched us personally. he received our award, and he was a personal fan -- friend of a lot of see pj staff. j staff. i had been in touch with them before this happened. it shows the degree to which mexican journalists are vulnerable. this guy was a renowned investigative journalist, and he really thought his work and his position protected him, but it did not. was -- putting in more danger. tore is not enough done

protect him. he was one of six journalists we documented having been targeted in mexico this year. mexico is interesting because we noted a decrease in the targeting of journalists, the direct targeting of journalists in reaction to their work this year. around the world, we saw a decrease, not so in mexico. in moscow, it continued to happen. reutersa -- two reporters detained, allegedly for violating the country's official secrets act. maria: it is a colonial law still in the books. they were reporting on the manga crisis, andohingya are being it accused of having illegally -- are being accused of having a legally obtained information from police. they spend up to 14 years in prison, and like most of what we are seeing around the world, they are being punished and silenced for reporting on

something critical. amy: what about the inch unity governments feel? -- what about the impunity governments feel? what do governments do in turkey, china -- these are the governments that are imprisoning them. maria: right. there is china, turkey, egypt, that are imprisoning journalists. that is one problem. then there is a second really large problem around the world in terms of being able to do your work as a journalist, and that is impunity in killings of journalists. that is a problem we have seen in mexico continued throughout the last decade. when a government does not punish, does not go after the killers of journalists, it just emboldens more attacks and more killings of journalists. amy: what are you calling for cpj? -- at maria: in terms of impunity, we

are calling on governments to shed a light on this, and to imprison those that are killing journalists. amy: overall, these two reports, one on arrest, one on killings -- what do you overall hope to accomplish? amy: we really think -- maria: we really think the international community and international pressure is one of the best weapons we have to protect journalists. we are calling on the international community to pressure governments elected turkish government, the chinese government, to release journalists and to call on mexican authorities to investigate and protect journalists to are doing their job. amy: i want to think you so much for being with us, -- thank you so much for the with us, maria salazar-ferro. that does it for our show. democracynow etc. and applications for our year-long fellowship. democracy now! democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed

captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy no- have you ever gonn

and come back wishing you hadn't gone quite so off the rail? well, it doesn't have to be like that. i'll show you how to transform your holiday into an opportunity to bring home new flavors to inspire your healthy life. today's dishes are all ideas i brought back from my spring break in the islands. jerk pork loin with mango-cucumber salsa caribbean chickpea curry wraps and for dessert, grilled pineapple with coconut whipped cream so let's bring the good times home together, right now, on ellie's real good food. (lively spanish guitar music)