A federal judge has questioned the Trump administration’s detention of Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto and his son, and has ordered an August 1 hearing into whether immigration officials violated his First Amendment rights. Gutiérrez first sought asylum in the United States in 2008 after receiving death threats for reporting on alleged corruption in the Mexican military. He’s since won the National Press Club’s Freedom of the Press Award. Speaking to Democracy Now! in a jailhouse interview last December, Emilio Gutiérrez Soto said deportation would be a death sentence.

Emilio Gutiérrez Soto: “Well, if we are deported, that obviously implies death. Why? Because ICE, under the Department of Homeland Security of the United States, by law, must give a report to the immigration authorities of Mexico and the consulate. And the immigration officials in Mexico have no credibility. It’s 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.”

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with at least six media workers killed so far this year alone.