Atlanta journalist Mario Guevara’s last ditch appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to block his deportation was denied on Wednesday.
The Salvadoran citizen, who’s legally authorized to work in the United States while awaiting a green card, has been imprisoned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since his arrest livestreaming a June 14 “No Kings” protest in DeKalb County.
The Oct. 1 order by 11th Circuit Judges Kevin Newsom, Andrew Brasher, and Embry Kidd affirmed Guevara’s First Amendment right to report as a non-citizen journalist. Even so, the federal judges denied his emergency motion to block the removal order, stating he’d failed to file the correct immigration paperwork.
“There is no doubt that Guevara, a noncitizen journalist, had a First Amendment right to attend and to report on the protest on the day of his arrest,” Kidd wrote in a concurring opinion. Newsom and Brasher were appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019 and 2017, respectively, while Kidd was appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2024.
But the 11th Circuit panel said it wasn’t ruling on his free speech rights or whether he was targeted for being a journalist. “Whether local officers violated Guevara’s First Amendment rights by arresting him at the protest is not before us today. Nor is whether he was targeted for removal based on his constitutionally protected activities,” Kidd wrote.
Instead, the 11th Circuit refused to halt Guevara’s deportation proceedings based on his immigration case, which the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) recently revived. Kidd’s concurring opinion noted that a federal immigration judge denied his asylum petition in 2012 and ordered his deportation to El Salvador. However, Guevara appealed and his case was later administratively closed.
After DeKalb County turned Guevara over to ICE custody in June, the Department of Homeland Security revived the 2012 immigration case. It successfully asked the Board of Immigration Appeals to re-calendar Guevara’s appeal of the 2012 deportation order, which was never decided because the case was subsequently administratively closed.
In response, Guevara asked the immigration court to rehear his original immigration case with new evidence – his US citizen son’s filing in April of a I-130 Petition for Alien Relative, which establishes a qualifying relationship for a green card.
In its Wednesday order, the 11th Circuit narrowly ruled against that request. “At this juncture, Guevara challenges only the BIA’s denial of his motion to remand. And on that question, I agree that he has failed to meet his burden to show that he is likely to succeed on the merits,” Kidd wrote.
The 11th Circuit also denied Guevara’s bid to block his removal proceeding, because the I-130 petition has not yet been approved and Guevara hasn’t filed an I-485 petition, commonly known as an adjustment of status.
Habeas petition
Meanwhile, Guevara in August separately filed a federal habeas petition demanding his release. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Guevara’s other attorneys have challenged his continued detention as a violation of his free speech rights. That case is still pending before a federal judge in the Southern District of Georgia.
The Committee to Protect Journalists was quick to condemn the 11th Circuit’s Oct. 1 ruling in Guevara’s immigration case. “This should send chills to all reporters and individuals who livestream,” said the press freedom group’s program coordinator, Katherine Jacobsen in an emailed statement. “It is vital that Guevara not be removed from the United States.” Guevara’s attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment. Guevara has been jailed for 109 days since his arrest, among the longest incarcerations for a journalist in US history.
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