Journalist Deported For Covering Anti-Trump Protest
Journalist Mario Guevara Deported To El Salvador For Covering An Anti-Trump Protest, But Free Speech, Right?
If the reelection of President Donald Trump has revealed nothing else about MAGA America, it has revealed that these people cannot claim to be advocates for free speech. The situation with Jimmy Kimmel showed us that. The aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s killing has shown us that. The federal government’s purging of anything that even gives off a whiff of “woke” ideology has shown us that. But, honestly, the most terrifying example of our MAGA-fied government deciding the First Amendment simply doesn’t apply when the Republicans in charge don’t want it to is the weaponization of ICE and other federal agencies against anyone speaking out in protest of Trump and his policies, or, in one journalist’s case, covering stories about anti-Trump protests.
According to CNN, Mario Guevara, an award-winning, Spanish-language journalist, has been deported after spending months in federal custody, and it appears that it all happened because he dared to cover protests against the MAGA messiah.
Earlier on Friday, Democracy Now reported that the 54-year-old was facing deportation to El Salvador, despite having legal work authorization status in the U.S. and never having been charged with a crime. Guevara, who had lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years, was reportedly arrested in June for livestreaming an anti-Trump “No Kings” protest near Atlanta.
“Mario’s case is really the tip of the spear, and today’s deportation is deeply troubling,” Nora Benavidez, his attorney, said in a statement. “It is because of his journalistic work that they targeted him. They really do not want what he’s doing to expose ICE.”
Benavidez compared Guevara’s case to the attempted deportations of pro-Palestine immigrant students on U.S. college campuses, which appears to be a reference to the case of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil.
In March, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents showed up at Khalil’s home at a Columbia University-owned apartment complex, where they arrested him after threatening to arrest his eight-month-pregnant wife, according to his attorney, Amy Greer. Khalil is a green card-holding permanent resident of the U.S., but Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other MAGA officials claimed, without evidence, that he’s a “Hamas supporter” who organized an “unauthorized marching event” in support of the terrorist organization, and played a “substantial role” in the circulation of social media posts criticizing Zionism. Not only had Khalil not been charged with a crime, but, in a two-page memo that supposedly outlined the administration’s evidence against him, Rubio appeared to admit that nothing he did was illegal.
“For cases in which the basis for this determination is the alien’s past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful, the Secretary of State must personally determine that the alien’s presence or activities would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest,” Rubio wrote, citing “an obscure provision from the Immigration and Nationality Act – which provides broad authority to the Secretary of State to revoke a person’s immigration status if their ‘activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,’” according to CNN.
Mind you, Khalil’s arrest happened just after Trump appeared to generalize all pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses as “illegal protests,” and threatened that “all Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows” such protests without bothering to elaborate on what exactly made them “illegal.”
Anyway, back to Guevara.
Democracy Now reports that police bodycam footage shows Guevara was wearing a black press vest and his press pass at the moment he was swarmed by officers in riot gear.
“Officer, officer, I’m with the media, officer,” he told one of the cops, who simply responded, “OK,” before another officer could be heard saying, “Yeah, I got him. Thank you.”
In a letter Guevara wrote after 100 days in ICE detention, he said, “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.
“That said, I will leave with a broken heart,” he continued. “[M]y 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.”
Guevara’s son, 21-year-old Oscar Guevara, previously addressed his father’s arrest and possible deportation during a press briefing with the ACLU.
“We can certainly say we are heartbroken every single day that he is apart from us,” Oscar said. “My father’s absence has — has affected our family in ways that are hard to put into words. In 2021, I was — I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and suffered a stroke during — during the surgery. Through all of this, my dad has been the person who keeps me going. He drives me to my — to my medical appointments, helps me manage my care, and, most importantly, lifts me up when I feel like giving in to the pain.”
According to CNN, advocacy groups like the ACLU and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) spent months sounding the alarm on Guevara’s detention, which continued even after a Georgia immigration judge ordered his release on bond in early July.
“Dozens of press freedom groups and more than 100 leading writers, journalists and scholars called for Guevara’s release from ICE detention,” CNN reported.
None of it mattered, though. The Bureau of Immigration Appeals closed his case on Sept. 19 and ordered his removal from the U.S.
So, that’s it, y’all. Free speech is an illusion, and Trump’s America hates immigrants, whether they’re here legally or not, and whether or not they actually pose a threat.
This is how they make America great again.
SEE ALSO:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia Released Friday, Arrested Again By ICE Monday
Op-Ed: We Should All Be More Concerned That Trump Keeps Threatening To Deport U.S. Citizens
Journalist Mario Guevara Deported To El Salvador For Covering An Anti-Trump Protest, But Free Speech, Right? was originally published on newsone.com
