Can Public Outrage and Protest Save Journalist Mario Guevara Like It Did Jimmy Kimmel?

Mario Guevara's legal team this week renewed its request that a federal judge free the Salvadoran journalist, who faces "imminent" deportation from the United States after being arrested while covering a June "No Kings" protest in Georgia and then held in an immigration detention center for over 100 days.

The local charges against Guevara have been dropped, but the Emmy-winning Spanish-language journalist—who has covered immigration in the Atlanta area for two decades—remains at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Folkston, despite having work authorization and a path to a green card through his son.

"Journalists should not have to fear government retaliation for doing their jobs, and showing up to work should not mean getting your family torn apart," said Scarlet Kim, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, in a Wednesday statement.

Kim was one of several lawyers who sent a letter to Benjamin Cheesbro, a magistrate judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, late Tuesday, after the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued an order of final removal, which authorizes Guevara's deportation.

Guevara's legal team asked Cheesbro for "immediate relief" on the grounds presented in a Monday motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction. The lawyers challenged the federal government's claims about his asylum case from 13 years ago, offering evidence that he "posted the voluntary departure bond on June 26, 2012," and "ICE issued a notice of cancellation of the bond on April, 21 2015."

"First, because he posted the voluntary departure bond, he should be subject to a voluntary departure order, and his detention is therefore unlawful under the Immigration and Nationality Act," the letter explains. "Second, his detention is intended to gag and punish his speech and therefore continues to violate the First Amendment."

Guevara's team is seeking his release while his federal court case challenging his detention plays out. However, as the jailed journalist wrote in a Monday letter made public by the ACLU, he is prepared "to be deported from this country, a country I have loved and respected for more than two decades."

"If I am deported, I will leave with my head held high, because I am convinced it will be for doing my work as a journalist and not for committing crimes," he wrote. "That said, I will leave with a broken heart and my dignity tarnished, because I have been humiliated by both federal and local authorities, and I don't believe I deserve it. And because my family, the thing I love most in life, will be separated, although all my loved ones know it has all been because of my passion for my work."

The journalist's adult children have publicly advocated for his release this week. His son, 21-year-old Oscar Guevara, who suffered a stroke during a 2021 surgery for a brain tumor, shared that "he drives me to my medical appointments, helps me manage my care and, most importantly, lifts me up when I feel like giving in to the pain."

Katherine Guevara, who is 27, said that "no one should have to face this fear of punishment for their free speech in this country. Still, we are holding on to hope that the government will do the right thing and release him at once. His place is with his family and his community, not behind bars or facing deportation."

Press freedom advocates have also rallied behind the journalist, with some pointing to the case of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel—who returned to his show on Disney-owned ABC on Tuesday after being yanked off the air by the company last week amid pressure from Federal Communication Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who objected to the comedian's comments about President Donald Trump and the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

"If you were concerned about Kimmel, here's another for you," Zeteo's Prem Thakker wrote on social media Wednesday.

Free Press senior counsel Nora Benavidez similarly said on Bluesky Tuesday: "Our opposition and upset over Jimmy Kimmel being taken off air have led to Kimmel coming back. Let's organize that much noise for reporters like Mario Guevara detained (despite being here legally) for filming police and ICE."

On Monday, Free Press and the Committee to Protect Journalists led a coalition in releasing a statement that says in part, "The government's prolonged detention of Guevara sends a chilling message to all journalists, citizens, and residents who record law enforcement, report on government activities, and seek to report the truth."

Other signatories include Amnesty International USA, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, PEN America, Reporters Without Borders, the Society of Professional Journalists, and others. The coalition also launched the website freedomformario.com.

The government's effort to deport Guevara comes not only amid the Trump administration's crackdown on dissent but also as masked ICE agents aim to deliver on the president's promise of mass deportations by rounding up immigrants across the country.