On February 5, Mexican journalist Martín Méndez Pineda, 26, crossed into the United States, requesting asylum after he received death threats while working at the Novedades de Acapulco newspaper. He presented all the necessary documents, following procedure to the letter of the law, providing proof that his life was in danger.

More than two months later, Méndez Pineda is being held in detention in El Paso, Texas, fearful that he may be deported back to Mexico at any time, as reported in El País.

What would normally happen after that is that an asylum seeker in the United States would be released by a special court. But US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) believes Méndez, who was going to stay with a relative who holds a US passport, is a flight risk.

“This is criminalizing asylum: he has been denied the right to post bond for no reason. This has to be seen as a political attack on the Mexican community living on the border,” says Méndez’s lawyer, Carlos Spector, blaming the tough immigration policies introduced by Donald Trump since he took office in January. “It doesn’t matter whether you are an asylum seeker or an immigrant with no papers, this is a shift toward a police state,” says Spector.

As reported in El País.