A Spanish-language reporter who was detained earlier this year has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging he’s being held in custody in violation of the Constitution.
Mario Guevara, 47, was arrested by police near Atlanta on June 14 while filming a “No Kings” protest — which sprung up in opposition to President Trump’s immigration agenda and summer military parade in Washington.
Guevara has a large following and frequently covers issues tied to immigration in the Peach State as the founder of MG News.
A judge in DeKalb County, Ga., dismissed his charges of unlawful assembly, obstruction of police and being a pedestrian on or along the roadway on June 25, but Guevara remains in federal custody.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Guevara is in the country illegally, while his lawyers say he is authorized to work and remain in the U.S. Over the past two months, he’s been shuffled through three detention centers despite attempts to pay a bond set by the immigration judge.
Officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement appealed the bond, which has resulted in a delay in Guevara’s release.
Local, regional and national press organizations have objected to his prolonged stay in custody by sending a letter to DHS last week urging Secretary Kristi Noem to release him on bond without delay.
“Every day Mario Guevara remains in federal custody is another day the government sends a chilling message that our freedoms are no longer guaranteed but merely conditional in the United States,” said Nora Benavidez, Free Press’s senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights.
“His children now been without their father for two months; each of those days is time they cannot get back with him,” Benavidez continued. “If people like Mario Guevara are cast as dangerous, that says more about the kind of nation we are becoming than it does about who Mr. Guevara is.”
The ACLU of Georgia has also weighed in.
“His detention on this basis is unlawful and sends a chilling message to other journalists, particularly non-citizen journalists, that they will also face retaliation if they report on public officials,” said Scarlet Kim, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU, in a statement.
“We ask the court to reject this egregious suppression of protected press activity and order Mr. Guevara’s immediate release,” Kim added.
