US. Department of Justice Executive Of?ce for Immigration Review Board of Immigration Appeals Of?ce of the Clerk 51107 Leesburg Pike, Suite 2000 Falls Church, frgim'a 22041 February 7, 2018 Eduardo Beckett, Esquire PO Box 971067 El Paso, TX 79997 Of?ce of Chief Counsel ELP 11541 Montana Avenue, Suite 0 El Paso, TX 79936 Re: Emilio Gutierrez Soto A077 491 780 Dear Counsel: Enclosed is a copy of a letter from Scott Busby, Deputy Assistant Secretary, United States Department of State dated February 2, 2018, for the above-referenced case. Enclosed United States Department of State lli'ashington. D.C. 20520 .. NAME: Emilio Gutierrez Soto . . A NUMBER: 077-491-780 - A 90 COUNTRY: Mexico Cgerkgogce i f; 3 Donna Carr .. - Ragged Chief Clerk of the Board - Board of Immigration Appeals 5107 Leesburg Pike, Suite 2000 Falls Church, VA 22041 February 2, 2018 Dear Chief Clerk Carr: The Department of State offers this letter to aid the US Board of Immigration Appeals review of the above-named asylum petition as it relates to the country context facing journalists in Mexico. The purpose of this letter is to provide facts that may aid the US. Board of Immigration Appeals in its review of this case. Overview More journalists were killed in Mexico in 2017 than in any previous year, making Mexico the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist outside of war zones. Mexican journalists were sometimes subjected to physical attacks, harassment, and intimidation due to their reporting. Perpetrators of violence against journalists continued to act with impunity with few reports of successful investigation, arrest, or prosecution of suspects. Reporters Without Borders put the number of Mexican reporters killed in 2017 at 1 1. The Of?ce of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded 15 killings as of November 2017. Killings in 2017 occurred across the country including in the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacan, Morelos, Sinaloa, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that 51 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2010. Investigative Reporters under Threat Reporting on the activity of transnational criminal organizations (TCOS) and of?cial corruption are particularly dangerous in some parts of the country, where journalists can be subjected to physical attacks, harassment, and intimidation by TCOs and corrupt state agents. On March 23, 2017, Miroslava Breach, correspondent for the daily newspapers La Jomada and Norte de Chihuahua who reported on corruption and TCOs, was shot and killed as she was preparing to take her son to school in Chihuahua City. Local politicians and a mayor may have played a role in exposing her to the criminal elements that killed her. International recognition has not shielded reporters from attacks. Javier Valdez, another reporter who specialized in TCO exposes, was awarded the International Press Freedom Award for heroic journalism by CPI in 2011. On May 15, 2017, Valdez was shot and killed near his of?ce in Culiacan, Sinaloa. To date, no one has been arrested or convicted for his killing. In other instances, journalists are threatened by public and law enforcement of?cials, including the military, merely for reporting on issues they deem critical. According to an April 2017 report by Mexican NGO Article 19, public of?cials were involved in ??y?one percent of the aggressions against oilrnalists committed between January and June 2017. Impunity The has ranked Mexico sixth in its global impunity index and reports 86 percent impunity for reporters killed in Mexico since 1992. In 2006, the Mexican federal government created the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) to investigate crimes against journalists and bring those cases to court. FEADLE has achieved three convictions since its inception, none of which were related to homicides. According to a 2017 . Reporters Without Borders investigation, only ten percent of cases involving crimes against journalists led to convictions. The Reporters Without Borders report concluded FEADLE lacks the personnel, funding, and political will to deal effectively with these cases. Government Protection Efforts The federal and state governments have set up programs (known as "mechanisms? to offer protections to journalists whose lives are believed to be at risk. The mechanisms can provide surveillance cameras, police escorts and patrols, and portable panic buttons to notify the police in the event of an attack. NGOs and journalists continue to criticize the federal and state mechanisms as under?inded, ineffective, and lacking political support. One journalist killed was under the federal protection mechanism at the time of his death. David Kaye and Edison Lanza, Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression for the United Nations and the Inter?American Commission on Human Rights respectively, issued a statement in December 2017 criticizing Mexico?s record in protecting journalists and human rights defenders and calling on the government to redouble its efforts to end attacks on reporters and bring perpetrators to justice. Sincerely, Awe Scott Busby Deputy Assistant Secretary Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor