SEATTLE — A man who spoke with reporters about his longtime girlfriend’s immigration arrest has now been detained himself, and he says agents told him it’s because he was in the newspaper.
Baltazar “Rosas” Aburto Gutierrez spoke with the local Chinook Observer as well as The Seattle Times after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained his girlfriend in June. He was identified by only his nickname in the Observer, and not by name in the Times.
Gutierrez told the Times in a phone interview from the Northwest Detention Center that he was arrested last Monday morning in Pacific County, where he works as a clamdigger. He said an agent told him they were arresting him because he’d been in the newspaper.
An ICE spokeswoman said the agency doesn’t retaliate as a rule. She declined to comment when pressed by the Times about Gutierrez’s case.
