Updated Oct. 6, 2025
Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning Spanish-language reporter who covered immigration in Georgia, was deported on Oct. 3 after being held by law enforcement for more than 100 days. Guevara was the only known journalist detained by ICE on U.S. soil.
The Georgia First Amendment Foundation joined the Committee to Protect Journalists and a coalition of local and national advocates who had been calling for Guevara’s release and for protection of journalists’ rights to gather news without government interference. Attorneys working on Guevara’s case, including some members of the foundation’s board, had been fighting in federal court to get him released.
“This case is chilling for all of us,” said Georgia First Amendment Foundation board member Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at the nonprofit Free Press and a First Amendment lawyer who worked on Guevara’s case. “Mario Guevara was in the U.S. legally, yet he was targeted because the government disliked his constitutionally protected activities as a journalist. It’s devastating to see our government abandon the core press freedom principles the United States was founded on.”
On Oct. 1, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to halt a deportation order, paving the way for Guevara’s removal from the country. On Oct. 2, Guevara’s son, who lives in metro Atlanta, made public that his father’s deportation was imminent. The following day, the journalist was deported to El Salvador, a country he fled many years ago. A video posted on Facebook Oct. 3 shows Guevara in El Salvador.
>>> Journalist Mario Guevara deported from U.S. in unprecedented move. Read statements.
>>> “We’re living in a climate of fear and retribution,” GFAF board member Nora Benavidez said during Guevara’s extended detention. See the headlines.
>>> Guevara sent a letter from his jail cell to the Bitter Southerner. Read the letter.
Guevara had lived in the United States for 20 years, had work authorization in the U.S. and was on a path to obtaining a green card when he was arrested June 14 while covering a “No Kings” protest in metro Atlanta. Local law enforcement authorities charged Guevara with entering a roadway, obstruction of law enforcement officers and unlawful assembly. He was detained despite wearing a vest clearly marked “PRESS.” The charges against him were later dropped.
Guevara, who had been a journalist in his native El Salvador before fleeing, worked as a reporter for Spanish-language news outlets in metro Atlanta, including Mundo Hispanico. He built a reputation for thoroughly covering immigration-related law enforcement, often livestreaming reports from raids being conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He launched his own digital news outlet, MG News, in 2024, attracting nearly 800,000 followers.
GFAF signed onto a June 20 letter raising the alarm about Guevara’s arrest and detention. “The Georgia First Amendment Foundation board joined the coalition signing the letter to express our dismay to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that a working journalist could face deportation for simply exercising his First Amendment rights while reporting on an event of great public interest,” said Sarah Brewerton-Palmer, the foundation’s president.
On July 1, an immigration judge in Georgia granted bail and ordered Guevara’s release, yet he remained in ICE custody.
On August 20, attorneys for Guevara filed a federal habeas petition seeking his immediate release on the grounds that his continued detention constituted retaliation for his reporting and a prior restraint on his continued speech and newsgathering in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The petition asserted that the government was explicit in its court filings that they were holding Guevara because he has exercised his First Amendment right to record public officials, specifically law enforcement officers carrying out their official duties in public.
