
Atlanta journalist fights deportation from Ice jail despite dropped charges: ‘I'm seeing what absolute power can do'
Donald Trump's administration has been extreme in unprecedented ways to undocumented immigrants. But Guevara's treatment is a special case. Shuttled between five jail cells in Georgia since his arrest while covering the 'No Kings Day' protests, the 20-plus-years veteran journalist's sin was to document the undocumented and the way Trump's agents have been hunting them down.
Today, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, he's the only reporter in the United States sleeping in a prison cell for doing his job.
'For the first for the first time in my life, I'm seeing what absolute power can do,' said Guevara's attorney, Giovanni Díaz. 'Power that doesn't care about optics. Power that doesn't care about the damage to human lives to achieve a result I've only heard about as some abstract thing that we heard about in the past, usually talking about other governments in the way that they persecute individuals. This is powerful.'
Around Atlanta, Guevara has been the person that immigrants call when they see an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raid going down in their neighborhood.
Guevara had been working for La Prensa Gráfica, one of El Salvador's main newspapers, when he was attacked at a protest rally held by the leftwing group Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in 2003. The former paramilitary organization viewed reporters from his paper as aligned with the rightwing government, and threatened his life. He fled to the United States in 2004, seeking asylum with his wife and daughter, entering legally on a tourist visa.
He has been reporting for Spanish-language media in the United States ever since, riding a wave of Latino immigration to the Atlanta suburbs to career success and community accolades. He began reporting on immigration crackdowns under the Obama administration, one of the few reporters to note a tripling of noncriminal immigration arrests in the Atlanta area, as noted in a 2019 New York Times video profile of his work.. He meticulously documented cases and interviewed the families of arrestees. People around Atlanta began to recognize him on the street as the journalist chasing la migra.
His work continued through the Trump administration, drawing an audience of millions that followed him from Mundo Hispánico to the startup news operation he founded last year: MGNews or Noticias MG.
'It's a unique niche that was met by Mario's innovation and entrepreneurialism, if you will,' said Jerry Gonzales, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials and GALEO Latino Community Development Fund. 'He developed a really strong relationship with the community. He developed significant trust with much of that community. And because of that, his eyeballs started increasing.'
An immigration court judge denied Guevara's asylum claim in 2012 and issued a deportation order. Guevara's lawyers appealed, and the court granted administrative closure of the case. He wasn't being deported. But he wasn't given legal residency either. Instead, the government issued him a work permit, his lawyer said. With a shrug, he went back to work.
Guevara is arguably the most-watched journalist covering Ice operations in the United States, a story that the English-language media had largely been missing, Gonzales said. And local police were well aware of his work. He has been negotiating with them for access to immigration enforcement scenes for more than a decade.
'Mario Guevara is well known – sometimes liked sometimes not – but definitely well known by law enforcement agencies, particularly in DeKalb county and Gwinnett county, and also with federal agents, and particularly immigration agents,' Gonzales said.
Gonzales, among others, believes this put a target on his back in the current administration.
'It seems like law enforcement coordinated and colluded with the federal agents,' Gonzales said. Gonzales points to the misdemeanor traffic charges laid by the Gwinnett county sheriff's office shortly after Guevara's arrest in DeKalb county by the Doraville police department as evidence.
'The facts and the timeline indicate that pretty clearly to anybody that's been following this,' he claimed. 'In this regard it's particularly troubling, given that he is a journalist and his situation. He had no reason to have been targeted for his arrest.'
The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to a request for comment about their relationship with local law enforcement. The Gwinnett county sheriff's office said in a response to a lawmaker's inquiry that it cooperates with Ice when deemed 'mutually beneficial' but has not responded to requests for additional comment.
Doraville's police chief, Chuck Atkinson, has not replied to an email seeking answers and fled from questions about the case at a city hearing. But Doraville's mayor, Joseph Geierman, denied a connection between Ice and Doraville's arrest of Guevara.
On 14 June, the day of his arrest, in Atlanta's DeKalb county, Guevara darted around a Doraville police truck. A group of riot cops nearby took note. One shouted 'last warning, sir! Get out of the road!'
Guevara was helmeted and wearing a black vest over his red shirt with the word 'PRESS' in white letters. James Talley, an officer with the Doraville police department, was wearing an olive drab Swat jumpsuit with a helmet and gas mask.
A masked demonstrator set off a smoke bomb near the cops. Guevara ran into the street with a stabilized camera in hand to capture the police reaction and the crowd scampering out of the way, as was shown on a police body camera video.
Police had issued a dispersal order and were kettling protesters out of Chamblee-Tucker Road. They chased the suspected bomb thrower into the crowd, to no avail. But Guevara was in front of them on a grassy slope.
Police from DeKalb county managing the raucous protest had been taking verbal abuse from demonstrators for a while – a sharp contrast from other protests around Atlanta held that day. The protest was winding down. Body camera video from the event suggests Talley was in an arresting mood.
'Keep your eye on the guy in the red shirt,' Talley said to another Swat officer from Doraville. 'If he gets to the road, lock his ass up.'
Talley pulled another police officer aside. 'If he gets in the road, he's gone,' Talley said. 'He's been warned multiple times.'
The other officer drew a finger across his chest. 'The press?' Yep, Talley replied.
The three of them waited about 50ft away as a DeKalb county police officer approached Guevara on the hill, ordering him to get on the sidewalk. Guevara backed away from the officer, his attention focused on the recording, took two steps into the street, and the Doraville police pounced.
Guevara pleaded for the police to be reasonable.
'I'm with the media, officer!' Guevara said. 'Let me finish!'
People shouted at the officers 'That's the press!' as they walked him handcuffed to a vehicle. 'Why are you all taking him! He didn't do nothing.'
More than one million people were watching Guevara's livestream when he was arrested.
Trump has stepped up his rhetorical attacks on journalists since his inauguration. Last week, he described a reporter asking about warnings and emergency response in the Texas flooding disaster as 'an evil person', an epithet he has turned to with increasing frequency.
The Guevara case is a sign of increasing hostility toward a free press, said Katherine Jacobsen, a program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. She traced a through line from the Associated Press being barred from government briefings after it refused to accept the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the 'Gulf of America', then lawsuits and investigations reopened against media companies, then attacks on journalists covering protests in Los Angeles, then Australian writer Alistair Kitchen's deportation seemingly in relation to his reporting on student protests.
'Next thing you know, we have Mario Guevara, a long time Spanish-language reporter in the Atlanta metro area, who is in Ice detention,' she said. 'It's growing increasingly concerning by the day.'
Guevara's audience views it as more than an attack on press freedom, though. They view it as an attack on themselves.
'He's a test case to push the envelope for legal immigrants that have committed no crime, to trump up charges against them,' GALEO's Gonzales said. 'And the second piece is how to target journalists.'
Sign up to This Week in Trumpland
A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration
after newsletter promotion
Guevara's arrest set off an immigration nightmare akin to the kind he has spent the last decade documenting.
His arrest on a Saturday led to a weekend in DeKalb county's decaying jail and a bond hearing that Monday. A magistrate court judge granted Guevara a no-dollar bond, but by then Ice had become aware of the arrest and placed Guevara on a hold. The jail released him into Ice custody, and held him briefly in a metro Atlanta facility.
The next day, Gwinnett county charged Guevara with three misdemeanor traffic offenses, claiming that they were related to Guevara livestreaming a law enforcement operation a month earlier. The charges would be sufficient to keep him in jail and provide Ice an argument for his deportation at a federal bond hearing. The Gwinnett county sheriff's office said Guevara's livestreaming 'compromised' investigations.
Guevara's attorneys tried to work quickly, Diaz said. 'The detained dockets are so backed up, and the immigration detention centers are so overwhelmed that what used to take us two or three days to get a bond hearing now is taking about a week,' he said.
Attorneys working for immigration enforcement argued in court that Guevara's reporting constituted a 'threat' to immigration operations.
Jacobsen with CPJ was listening to the hearing when the government made that argument.
'We felt a sense of alarm,' she said. 'Alarm bells were raised by the government's argument, as well as the judge not necessarily pushing back against the government's argument that live streaming poses a danger to threaten law enforcement actions.'
The immigration judge granted Guevara a $7,500 bond for the immigration case. But Guevara's family was not allowed to pay it because government attorneys appealed the bond order to the board of immigration appeals. But it took seven days for the court to issue a stay to the government's appeal. Meanwhile, Ice began playing musical jail cells with Guevara.
Over the course of the next three weeks, Ice shuttled Guevara between three different counties around Atlanta and eventually to the massive private prison Ice uses in Folkston, Georgia, 240 miles south-east of Atlanta on the Florida line.
'We weren't surprised that they appealed, because the government's reserving and in most cases appealing everything, even stuff where they shouldn't appeal because they're wasting everybody's time,' Diaz said. 'But we didn't really know the breadth of what they were trying to do to him.'
Earlier this week, Todd Lyons, Ice's acting director, issued a memo changing its policy on bond hearings, arguing that detainees are not entitled to those hearings before their deportation case is heard in court. Immigration advocates expect to challenge the move in court.
But Guevara is not facing a criminal charge. The Gwinnett county solicitor's office dropped the traffic charges last week, noting that two of them could not be prosecuted because they occurred on private property – the apartment complex – and the third lacked sufficient evidence for a conviction.
For now, Ice has mostly kept Guevara in medical wards in jails even though he is healthy, Diaz said. 'From the beginning, they've been keeping Mario under a special segregation because they're claiming he's a public figure. They want to make sure nothing happened to him.'
Doraville is a municipality of about 10,800 in DeKalb county with a separate police force, and had been asked to assist managing the protest in the immigrant-heavy Embry Hills neighborhood nearby. Protests have become a regular occurrence in DeKalb county since the Trump administration's immigration raids began.
Doraville's cops have displayed a more cooperative relationship with immigration law enforcement than many other metro Atlanta departments, and observers have raised questions about whether its police department arrested Guevara to facilitate an Ice detainer.
Geierman, the mayor, denied those accusations.
'The Doraville police department was not operating under the direction of, or in coordination with, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) during the June 14th protest,' he said in a statement. 'To the department's knowledge, no Ice personnel were present at the event. Doraville officers were on site to support the DeKalb county sheriff's office as part of a coordinated public safety effort.'
Observers have also questioned Guevara's charges from Gwinnett county – ignoring traffic signs, using a communication device while driving, and reckless driving – that stemmed from an incident that occurred in May, a month before his arrest.
'Mario Guevara compromised operational integrity and jeopardized the safety of victims of the case, investigators, and Gwinnett county residents,' the department said in a statement.
But Gwinnett's belated prosecution left his attorneys gobsmacked.
'In the narrative that they put out, they say he was livestreaming a police operation, and he was interfering,' Diaz said. 'But when they went to a judge to get warrants, the only warrants the magistrate was able to sign for them was for traffic violations. I mean, that's kind of telling.'
'I think the whole thing is suspicious,' he added. 'From the beginning, just everything seemed they were really making efforts to make it difficult for him to go free.'
Marvin Lim, a Filipino American state representative whose district contains the apartment complex in Gwinnett in Guevara's citation, has asked the sheriff's office a detailed set of questions about the department's relationship with federal immigration enforcement. He has not received an adequate response, he said in an open letter to the sheriff.
An array of six advocacy organizations challenged Gwinnett's sheriff, Keybo Taylor, in a letter Tuesday over Guevara's arrest and the sheriff's posture toward immigration enforcement, demanding details about the relationship. GALEO, among them, also issued a separate letter Wednesday calling on Taylor to be transparent about the Guevara arrest.
Guevara 'was arrested while doing the vital work that journalists in a democracy do', GALEO's letter states. 'Not only do the circumstances surrounding his incarceration and subsequent immigration detainment stir serious civil rights concerns, but they also build upon an expanding sense of fear and confusion in Georgia's most diverse county.'
'I am being persecuted,' Guevara wrote in a 7 July letter seeking humanitarian intercession from, of all people, Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's rightwing president.
'I am about to complete a month in jail, and I need to get out in order to continue with my life, return to my work, and support my family,' Guevara wrote. 'I have lived in the United States for nearly 22 years. I had never been arrested before. In these past three weeks, I have been held in five different jails, and I believe the government is trying to tarnish my record in order to deport me as if I were a criminal.'
Guevara's American-born son turned 21 this year, permitting him to sponsor Guevara's green card and eventual citizenship. His application is pending, Diaz said. It may not matter.
'This is the first time I've ever seen a stay filed for someone who has no convictions, has almost no criminal history in 20 years, and only had pending traffic violations,' Diaz said.
'It's clear that everybody's working really hard to keep him detained.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
a minute ago
- Daily Mail
Police fail to arrest supporters of banned group Palestine Action in sign demos - despite more than 100 arrests last week
Police have failed to arrest supporters of the banned group Palestine Action as 11 activists sat holding signs for 60 minutes without being detained. Protests were held in both Totnes and Edinburgh today as part of a campaign opposing the proscription of the direct action organisation. But despite more than 100 arrests last week and 200 total arrests since the ban came into force on July 5, protesters today were allowed to hold their signs. It marked a stark contrast to last week when rallies were held in London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh and Truro where activists were physically carried away and detained by police amid shouts of 'fascist' and 'Starmer's project of fear has failed'. The ban on Palestine Action means membership of or support for the direct action group is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison, under the Terrorism Act 2000. Due to the ban, inviting or expressing support for the organisation - through chanting, clothing or displaying articles like flags, signs or logos - is a criminal offence. Organisers behind today's protests, Defend Our Juries, have argued police's decision to 'exercise discretion to leave peaceful protestors be' has suggested the ban on the group is unworkable as activists (in Totnes) 'defend our ancient liberties in a small, rural town'. It comes as yesterday UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk argued the proscription of Palestine Action was a violation of international law. The group was proscribed by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper after its members caused an estimated seven million pounds worth of damage to RAF Brize Norton planes on June 20. Ms Cooper also claimed '[the group's] activity has increased in frequency and severity since the start of 2024 and its methods have become more aggressive, with its members demonstrating a willingness to use violence'. Defend Our Juries says around 500 people are expected to take part in a 'mass sign-holding' on August 9 after today's protesters held signs saying 'I Oppose Genocide. I Support Palestine Action'. In Totnes protesters were joined by dozens more holding signs with their own wording, as well as people holding trade union flags and hundreds of supporters singing 'Lift the ban, now, for Gaza' and applauding speeches calling for the Home Secretary to Lift The Ban. Attending the protest was journalist George Monbiot who argued 'Palestine Action are protesters not terrorists'. He said: 'The proscription of Palestine Action is the most illiberal thing any Home Secretary has done for at least 30 years. 'The result is an Orwellian situation, in which people gently calling for peace are arrested under the Terrorism Act, while the government actively assists Israeli state terror, as it perpetrates genocide in Gaza. This is an assault on free speech, on logic and on human decency.' In a letter to police ahead of the demo, the Totnes residents claimed: 'In continuing to support the Israeli government in its genocide, including through the ongoing export of parts for F-35 fighter jets, the British government is committing crimes under the Genocide Act 1969, which is binding in UK law.' Rallies were also held in Edinburgh and Truro last week to protest the proscription of the campaign group as a terrorist organisation earlier this month. Pictured: Protesters hold up signs in support of Palestine Action at the demonstration in London Similar sign-holding protests are scheduled to take place today in Derry for a third week where, so far, the local police have made no arrests. On Wednesday Derry City & Strabane District Council became the first elected politicians to openly defy the ban and call for it to be lifted. Activists have been protesting against the UK's supplying of arms in Gaza, which has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians since October 7 - when 1,200 Israelis were killed by a Hamas incursion into the country amid the continued occupation of Palestinian territories. Although seemingly absent from today's protest, Devon and Cornwall Police said in a statement on demonstrations last week: 'A number of placards which were contrary to the law remained on display despite police advice. 'Eight people, two men and six women, were arrested on suspicion of offences under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000. They remain in police custody.' The force has been contacted for further comment as has Police Scotland.


Daily Mail
a minute ago
- Daily Mail
DAN HODGES: This is why I think Farage and Rayner are right - Britain is now a nation on the brink
Becky lives about ten minutes from The Bell Hotel in Epping. She used to pass by it when she went for a stroll with her daughter on nearby Bell Common. But that stopped when the asylum seekers arrived. 'I drive her past here now,' she tells me. 'It doesn't feel safe.' It's why she's joined the small group of protesters standing by steel railings, and surrounded by a polite, but large, group of police officers.


The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
Hundreds protest Trump's visit to Scotland as US president hits the golf course under heavy security
Hundreds of protesters have gathered in Edinburgh and Aberdeen to voice their opposition to US President Donald Trump 's visit to Scotland. Demonstrators waved anti-Trump slogans objecting to his five-day trip to the country, while others brought 'free Gaza' signs and Palestinian flags. The support for the war-torn enclave comes after the president said on Friday that France's recognition of a Palestinian state 'doesn't matter'. Meanwhile, Mr Trump took to the golf course on the first full day of his visit, playing at Trump Turnberry in South Ayrshire under the watchful eye of heavy security. The army, navy and counter-terrorism police were all present at Turnberry to complete security checks on the course with police snipers on standby in scaffolding set up next to the course. Mr Trump blared 'Uptown Girl' by Billy Joel, 'Memory' by Elaine Paige and 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' by Simon & Garfunkel as he drove his golf caddie around, according to Sky News. The president flew into Scotland on Friday night, and after touching down at the nearby Prestwick Airport headed for the golf resort, which he bought in 2014. Road closures have been implemented by police with limited access for locals and members of the media. A large number of police and military personnel were spotted searching the grounds on Saturday morning ahead of his game. While the president is expected to spend much of his first day in Scotland on his course, Mr Trump has meetings scheduled with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Monday. Mr Trump drew crowds to Prestwick Airport on Friday evening as Air Force One touched down ahead of his four-day visit. Scots are set to gather across the country to protest his visit over the weekend. First Minister John Swinney, also set to meet with the president during his time in Scotland, has urged people to protest 'peacefully and within the law'. Saturday is the first major test for Police Scotland during the president's visit, with demonstrations near the American consulate organised by the Stop Trump Coalition. They will be on alert as well for any demonstrations near the president's golf course. Access to the US consulate in Regent Terrace, Edinburgh, has been blocked since 7am ahead of the protest, which started at midday and saw hundreds of people gather. In Aberdeen, Green north east Scotland MSP Maggie Chapman told the crowd of hundreds: 'We stand in solidarity not only against Trump but against everything he and his politics stand for.' Speaking about the US president, Ms Chapman said: 'He believes that climate change isn't real, he believes that cutting services for those in the world with the least is the right thing to do. 'We say no to all of those things, not in our name, never in our name.' Tension brewed at the edge of the rally during the final speech as a passer-by appearing to argue with protesters wearing Palestinian colours; police intervened and led the individual away. As speeches ended, chants of 'Trump Trump Trump, out out out' could be heard, along with 'Donald, Donald, hear us shout, all of Scotland wants you out'. The force has asked for support from others across the UK to bolster officer numbers with both organisations representing senior officers and the rank-and-file claiming there is likely to be an impact on policing across the country for the duration of the visit. The first minister was criticised for announcing public money of £180,000 would support a tournament at the Trump International golf links in Aberdeenshire. The 2025 Nexo Championship – previously known as the Scottish Championship – is set to take place there next month,. Mr Swinney said: 'The Scottish Government recognises the importance and benefits of golf and golf events, including boosting tourism and our economy.' Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie likened Mr Swinney's announcement to 'handing some pocket money to the school bully basically with £180,000 to support a golf tournament at the Menie estate'. Some 1,500 police officers have been redeployed across England and Wales for Mr Trump's private visit following concerns from police that the trip would 'undoubtedly stretch' police resources. Chief Superintendent Rob Hay, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (Asps), said: 'The private visit of President Donald Trump to Scotland at the end of July will require the Police Service of Scotland to plan for and deliver a significant operation across the country over many days. 'This will undoubtedly stretch all our resources from local policing divisions to specialist and support functions such as contact, command and control.'