LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Free press advocates are raising the alarm over journalist Mario Guevara, who's been detained for more than 100 days. His lawyer says he's now in danger of imminent deportation. He's originally from El Salvador and has lived in the U.S. for 20 years. Guevara ran an independent Spanish media outlet. His ACLU attorney, Scarlet Kim, says he was legally authorized to live and work in the U.S.
SCARLET KIM: So in June of this year, Mario was documenting a No Kings protest in the Atlanta area when he was arrested by local police and charged with a couple of misdemeanors for stepping into a roadway during his reporting. The charges were dismissed shortly thereafter. Nevertheless, ICE quickly transferred him into its custody. And I think that his targeting and detention by the government is related to a broader story of how ICE has been acting in secret as a secret police force. ICE agents are masking up, refusing to wear visible ID, driving unmarked cars. Their targeting and punishment of Mario is of a piece with this conduct, which is to essentially conduct their raids in secret. They clearly want to hide themselves and what they're doing from the public. Mario's work was precisely directed at reporting on those activities. And I think the government's goal is not only to extinguish his work around this issue, but to chill the work of others trying to document this activity as well.
FADEL: What are the conditions of his detention?
KIM: He's spent the majority of his detention at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in solitary confinement, confined to a cell for 22 hours a day, purportedly for his own safety. He was allowed outside for two hours a day, where he was taken to a bigger cell that he described as looking like a dog crate, where he could breathe fresh air. However, we filed a habeas petition in August to seek his release. And after we filed the petition, we heard that Mario had been moved from solitary confinement to general population.
FADEL: You've asked for a temporary restraining order to block his deportation. Has it been granted?
KIM: It has not been granted. We've sought emergency relief from two different courts to try and stay his deportation. Mario could be deported as early as today, October 2.
FADEL: When you look at what's happening to Guevara, is it wholly unique, or is it part of a larger trend that you're seeing with this administration?
KIM: So the Committee to Protect Journalists says that Mario is the only journalist in the United States being detained for his reporting. But I think that his story is part of a broader trend of the government aggressively using and abusing its immigration enforcement powers to target speech that it does not like. It's very much a case about free speech and also free press. And the First Amendment right to photograph, film, record law enforcement officers carrying out their duties in public and being able to publish that output - it will have an enormous, enormous chilling effect.
FADEL: Scarlet Kim is a senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. Scarlet, thank you.
KIM: Thank you so much.
FADEL: After we spoke, Guevara's attorney learned the court denied a motion to stay their client's removal. Mario Guevara's daughter, Katherine Guevara, sent NPR this voice memo about her dad.
KATHERINE GUEVARA: He deserves to be free with his family and do what he loves most, which is serve his community. He's an asset to this country, and I pray that the government does the right thing and releases him at once.
FADEL: Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told us, quote, "the facts of this case have not changed. Mario Guevara is in the country illegally."
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