Lawyers, supporters and family members gathered on Tuesday in the state capital of Georgia in Atlanta, around Mario Guevara, a Spanish-speaking journalist awarded by Emmy Award, who stayed in federal lessons more than a month after his arrest with a metro atlantic protest.
Guevara, who was known for his immigration reporting charged He with improperly entering a street, disability of the law enforcement officers and the illegal assembly, which are all violations of offenses. Later he was charged with three additional offenses of the Sheriff office of the Gwinnett County due to distracting driving, non -observance of a traffic control device and ruthless driving. Since then, all six charges have been given Associated Press.
The journalist Mario Guevara drove the anti-Ice protest against Chamblee Tucker Road on June 14th when he was arrested. Photo loan: Alessandro Marazzi Sasso with the Atlanta Civic Circle
Guevara has been based in the United States as an immigrant from El Salvador for more than 20 years and is entitled to work in this country. However, the indictment for offense enabled us that immigration and the customs authority put a detainee on him and pave the way for potential deportation. He was brought into ice custody three days after his first arrest and has stayed there since then.
According to his lawyer Giovanni Diaz, he is currently being recorded in the Folkston Ice Processing Center in South Georgia. The facility, which currently holds a little more than 1,100 beds, should be greatest The immigrants in the United States.
While Guevara is physically intact, Diaz said that his experience in federal custody shaken him.
“He is an incredibly positive person, he relies on his faith and family, and he continues to do so,” said Diaz. “But I think there are certain things that shaken it into the core.”
At the press conference on Tuesday, two of Guevara's children on behalf of their father spoke of whom they say that he devoted his life to the information of Atlantas Hispanic Community. Guevara worked for the Spanish newspaper Mundo Hispanico for years before founding his own digital news agency. Mg newsAbout a year ago.
“Since he was arrested, our family has felt an empty one that we cannot fill,” said Guevara's daughter Katherine Guevara. “My mother is exhausted. My brothers and I have the feeling that I capture in a nightmare.”
“This is not just about a journalist,” she continued. “This is about what kind of country that we want to be. If a government can punish a reporter to do his job, what message does this send? What protection for the rest of us?”
Guevara's son Oscar repeated her feelings and said that his father's work was not just a job, it was an appointment, and now he is punished to answer this call. “
“My father has been a legal inhabitant of the United States for more than 20 years,” he added. “He pays taxes, he pursued the law. He raised a family here, and although he has no charges against him, he sits in a cell as if he were a threat, everything because he did his job.”
Guevara's arrest and subsequent transfer to ice custody has achieved national attention and a task of one Outcry from First Amendment supported in Georgia, who have pushed for his release.
“Mario Guevara's case feels for the disturbing path that the United States are located detained of ice agents after he had spoken out to support Palestine.
“If the exercise of [First Amendment] The rights are now punished as Mario Guevara, simply because those who are in power do not like the message or the messenger. This means that our basic freedoms are not free, “said Benavidez.
The US Ministry of Homeland Protection has contested the characterization of Guevara's arrest by the supporters of First Amendment.
“Allegations that Mario Guevara was arrested by ice because he is completely wrong,” said the DHS in one post On the social media website X “this El Salvador National in ice custody added because he entered the country illegally in 2004.”
Mario Guevara's lawyer Giovanni Diaz speaks on July 22, 2025 at a press conference in Atlanta. Maya Homan/Georgia Recorder
Guevara fled from his home country El Salvador in 2004 after seeing Violence requested due to its reporting and as a asylum. Although an immigration judge rejected His asylum application in 2012, Diaz told the Associated Press That the case was ultimately solved and Guevara received approval to continue working in the United States
Although Guevara was Admittedly Through an immigration judge three weeks ago, he remained custody after ICE had appealed against the judgment. Guevara's lawyers said that they were optimistic that the board of directors will finally enable him to be released to be released for the bail and that they will continue to prepare for the next phase of his case.
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