'Climate of fear and retribution': Advocates react to reporter's ICE detention

Lautaro Grinspan, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Jul 22, 2025

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ATLANTA — Press freedom advocates and supporters of Mario Guevara, the metro Atlanta reporter facing deportation, gathered at the Georgia State Capitol on Tuesday to denounce the journalist’s prolonged detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

They described ICE’s treatment of Guevara as an attack against him for his coverage of ICE raids, which he has documented all over metro Atlanta for an audience of more than a million people on social media and his own website.

“We’re living in a climate of fear and retribution,” said Nora Benavidez, a Georgia First Amendment Foundation board member.

Those words echoed Guevara’s own.

In a recent exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Spanish-language reporter said he believes his coverage of immigration enforcement made him a target. He has been placed in solitary confinement at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in South Georgia — which officials there have told him is for his own protection. He is allowed out of his cell for only two hours per day, Guevara said.

“I’m plainly convinced that my situation in this ICE jail is direct retaliation for my coverage,” he said in a recent telephone call from Folkston. “I haven’t committed any crimes. The government wants to use me as an example, they want to send a message that people can’t be following ICE operatives or expose what’s happening.”

The Trump administration disputes that view.

On X, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Guevara “is in ICE custody because he is in our country ILLEGALLY.”

Although Guevara lacks permanent legal status, he has a valid work permit and a path to a green card through his U.S. citizen son, his attorneys have said.

“Mario is being punished for his journalism,” said José Zamora, Americas director with the Committee to Protect Journalists. “This is a blatant attack on press freedom, on the First Amendment and on the right of communities, especially immigrant communities, to be informed.”

Guevara was first arrested June 14 while livestreaming a tense anti-ICE protest in DeKalb County. He was charged with obstructing law enforcement officers, unlawful assembly and pedestrian walking on a road. Although those charges were later dropped, he was quickly transferred from DeKalb County Jail into ICE custody.

Earlier this month, a federal immigration judge ruled Guevara could be released on a $7,500 bond, but ICE took steps to block Guevara’s release, filing an appeal.

Guevara’s daughter, Katherine Guevara, said her father’s detention has had a profound impact on the family.

“Since he’s been detained, our family has felt an emptiness that we cannot begin to fill. My mom is exhausted. My brothers and I feel like we’re stuck in a nightmare,” she said. “The pain we feel is indescribable. … I’m deeply disappointed with this country.”

She added: “There are many fears tied to the uncertainty of what lies ahead for my dad. But more than fear, I feel anger because this should not be happening. My dad did nothing wrong. He was arrested while wearing a press badge.

“He was doing his job.”

State Sen. Josh McLaurin raised the specter of increased immigration detention following the passage of Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill,” which will unlock an unprecedented pool of funding for ICE.

“What this means for communities, particularly immigrant communities, is fear,” he said. “Mario Guevara is a journalist. And so, his detention raises even bigger questions about civil rights, constitutional rights, the freedom of speech (and) the freedom of the press.”

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