Reporter Is Detained by ICE After Reporting on Immigration Protest
A journalist known for covering immigration arrests in Georgia was taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on Wednesday after he was arrested while reporting on a protest against the Trump administration's immigration policies over the weekend.
The journalist, Mario Guevara, is originally from El Salvador and has been in the United States for more than 20 years, one of his lawyers, Zach Gaeta, said. Mr. Guevara was not a legal permanent resident or citizen, but he had a work permit and a Social Security number, Mr. Gaeta said.
It was not clear where Mr. Guevara was on Wednesday morning after he was released from the DeKalb County Jail, Mr. Gaeta said. Mr. Guevara had been jailed since he was arrested on Saturday at a protest about 15 miles northeast of Atlanta. Mr. Gaeta said that Mr. Guevara's legal team planned to challenge his detention and to try to find him a path to legal status.
'We do think that he has a defendable case and we're still remaining optimistic about his release,' Mr. Gaeta said.
Mr. Guevara, who built a large following covering immigration issues in Georgia, was best known for documenting immigration arrests. He was the subject of an Op-Doc mini documentary produced by The New York Times's Opinion department in 2019.
He said in the documentary that he was attacked and threatened while working as a reporter in El Salvador, so he sought asylum in the United States. He has been living in Georgia since 2004, Mr. Gaeta said.
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