ACLU Seeks Order to Immediately Release Journalist Mario Guevara, Who May Be Sent to El Salvador At Any Moment

ATLANTA – Today, the Board of Immigration Appeals declined to release Mr. Guevara on bond, despite an immigration judge’s previous order granting his release. Instead, the board reopened Mr. Guevara’s 13-year-old immigration case and ordered him to return to El Salvador. The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Georgia have been seeking Mr. Guevara’s release from retaliatory detention in a federal district court and are asking the court to free him immediately before he is deported at any moment. The court has ordered an emergency hearing today in Georgia.

“Mr. Guevara should not even be in immigration detention, but the government has kept him there for months because of his crucial reporting on law enforcement activity, said Scarlet Kim, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, & Technology Project. “The fact that he may now be put on a plane to El Salvador, a country he fled out of fear, at any moment, despite a clear path to becoming a permanent resident is despicable. The court must ensure he is not deported and should order his release from detention immediately.”

In the opinion, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Mr. Guevara’s bond appeal as “moot” because it has also granted the government’s motion to reopen his removal proceedings. The opinion misstates that that decision ordered Mr. Guevara removed. Instead, that decision granted Mr. Guevara voluntary departure. Subsequently, the government administratively closed the removal proceedings against Mr. Guevara and he was permitted to live and work in the United States for over a decade.

“If Mr. Guevara is deported it will be a devastating outcome for a journalist whose initial detention was a gross violation of his rights,” said Cory Isaacson, legal director, ACLU of Georgia. “The immediate release of Mr. Guevara is the only way to correct this injustice that has immeasurably harmed his well-being and the well-being of his family, the community and the people of Georgia. In a democracy, journalists should not be arrested for exercising their constitutional rights to report the news.”

The Board of Immigration Appeals also denied Mr. Guevara’s motion to remand the removal proceedings back to the immigration judge so that he may seek a green card, for which he is eligible through his U.S. citizen son.

Mr. Guevara was granted bond by an immigration judge on July 1, 2025. However, the government sought an emergency stay and an appeal on the basis that Mr. Guevara’s livestreaming and reporting on law enforcement activity is dangerous.

Mr. Guevara was standing with other journalists and wearing a vest that identified him as a member of the press when he was arrested on June 14 in DeKalb County while covering a “No Kings” protest. Shortly after his arrest, prosecutors dropped the criminal charges stemming from his presence at the protest, having concluded that he was complying with law enforcement directives, and an immigration judge ordered him released on bond on July 1. When his family tried to pay the bond, however, ICE officials refused to release him and instead transferred him to Gwinnett County after the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office filed traffic violation charges. Those charges were also dropped shortly thereafter. Mr. Guevara nevertheless remains in custody, in isolation. He is currently being held at Folkston ICE Processing Center in southeastern Georgia, over four hours away from his family – the fifth place he has been held in the two months since his detention.

The statement is online here.
The order is available here.