Imprisoned Atlanta journalist Mario Guevara’s children demanded his release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at a press conference at the Georgia State Capitol on Tuesday morning.
They were flanked by state lawmakers including state Sen. Josh McLaurin (D-Sandy Springs), Rep. Samuel Park (D-Lawrenceville), and Rep. Ruwa Romman (D-Duluth), and members of the Committee to Project Journalists and the ACLU of Georgia.
“This process has been extremely complicated and difficult every step of the way,” Guevara’s daughter, Katherine Guevara, 27, said. “With every day that passes, we’re losing time we never get back. The pain we feel is indescribable, though I know so many others in the same situation.”
Her father, now in his sixth week of imprisonment, is currently being held at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in South Georgia. The Atlanta journalist was arrested on June 14 on misdemeanor obstruction charges while covering an anti-ICE protest in DeKalb County.
A Salvadoran national, Guevara has lawfully resided in the United States for over 20 years with work authorization awaiting approval for a green card. Even so, the DeKalb authorities handed him over to ICE. DeKalb subsequently dropped the protest-related charges against Guevara, and Gwinnett County then dropped traffic violations it had brought against him while he was in ICE custody, but ICE has refused to release him.
A federal immigration judge granted Guevara a $7,500 bond on July 1, but, in an unusual move, ICE appealed it. Until that appeal is heard, the journalist remains incarcerated by ICE at the Folkston prison.
Guevara’s lawyer, Giovanni Díaz, said that if the Board of Immigration Appeals doesn’t approve the bond, it would be a sign that “the government is acting in bad faith and we will pursue litigation.” Díaz said his client is considering filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against ICE and possibly local law enforcement agencies complicit in his detention.
Díaz said that the government’s highly unusual treatment of Guevara – bouncing him across five federal and county jails over five weeks in custody, placing him in solitary confinement, repeatedly mischaracterizing his immigration status, and bringing misdemeanor charges that were quickly dropped – suggest Guevara is being retaliated against for his coverage of ICE activity.
What’s more, Díaz said, Guevara’s phone was seized while he was held briefly at the Gwinnett County Jail, but weeks later, neither Gwinnett nor ICE authorities have shown him a warrant, nor indicated why they took his phone.
For the civil rights groups, Guevara’s prolonged detention by ICE signals a decline in US press freedom and constitutional protections.
“Journalists should not have to be concerned that they will face deportation or other retaliation when they are just trying to do their jobs,” said ACLU of Georgia lawyer Andrés López-Delgado. He added that constitutional rights, including free speech, apply to everyone in the US, regardless of citizenship status.
“We’ve seen a steady rise in domestic threats to press freedom,” said Katherine Jacobsen of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Now, Guevara’s case stands as one of the clearest examples of that erosion.”
Since 2020, the U.S. has dropped from 45th in the World Press Freedom Index to 57th in 2025.
