Several organizations dedicated to preserving free speech and protecting members of the press are calling for the release of a prominent immigration reporter who was detained while covering a protest in Atlanta earlier this month and is now on track to be deported.
Mario Guevara, an Emmy-award winning Spanish language reporter based in metro Atlanta, was initially charged with improperly entering a roadway, obstruction of law enforcement officers and unlawful assembly, all of which were misdemeanors. An immigrant from El Salvador, Guevara had been a legal resident of the U.S. for more than 20 years. However, the misdemeanor charges after his arrest allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to place a detainer on him, paving the way for a potential deportation.
He was later transferred into ICE custody and charged with three additional misdemeanors from the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office for distracted driving, failure to obey a traffic control device, and reckless driving, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Body camera footage obtained by the AJC showed Guevara wearing both a helmet and vest marking him as a member of the press as he was arrested, alarming free press advocates. He had been covering a protest against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“At the time of his arrest, Guevara was wearing a press vest and clearly identified himself to law enforcement,” Katherine Jacobsen of the nonprofit organization Committee to Protect Journalists wrote in a letter to DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Lorraine Cochran-Johnson. “Video footage indicates that Guevara was in no way obstructing police activity but rather documenting the protest, a matter of public interest.”
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the Committee to Protect Journalists and other free press advocates including the Atlanta Press Club, the Georgia First Amendment Foundation and the Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists urged her to facilitate Guevara’s release.
“We request that he be released on bond and that removal proceedings against him, which were triggered by three misdemeanor charges that seem to conflict with his First Amendment rights as a journalist, be dropped unequivocally and immediately,” the letter states. “If Guevara’s case proceeds, it would represent a grim erosion of both freedom of the press and the rule of law. Journalists who are not U.S. citizens could be at risk of deportation solely because local law enforcement filed misdemeanor charges against them in retaliation for reporting without those charges ever being tried in court.”
Department of Homeland Security’s official account disputed media coverage of the arrest in a post on the social media site X, and confirmed that Guevara “was turned over to ICE custody and has been placed in removal proceedings.”
Guevara is currently being held at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in South Georgia, which is set to become the largest immigrant detention facility in the United States. His legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.