Deported Atlanta journalist still reporting on ICE despite ‘deep sadness’
Among Mario Guevara’s most cherished holiday rituals in recent years was stringing up Christmas lights outside his Lilburn home as soon as the Thanksgiving celebration was over.
In 2025, the Spanish-language reporter could only watch a video of his children setting up the lights without him.
The reason for Guevara’s absence has been well-documented across national media.
While covering an anti-Trump protest in June, Guevara was arrested by local police and charged with three misdemeanors: obstruction of law enforcement, unlawful assembly and pedestrian walking on or along a roadway.
The charges were dismissed days later, but from Guevara’s perspective, the damage had been done. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already picked up the reporter, a Salvadoran national, from DeKalb County Jail. He wound up spending more than 100 days in the agency’s custody — much of it in solitary confinement in a South Georgia ICE detention center — before being deported in October.
Now, about two months into his return to a country he left more than two decades ago, Guevara says part of him misses being held in an ICE cell because at least then he could see his family once a week during visitation hours.
Only extended family are in El Salvador. Guevara’s siblings, mother and wife are all in Georgia. So far, Guevara said the sting of that separation has only grown worse.
“Every day, I miss them more. Every day, I want to be over there with my family that much more,” he said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Guevara says the isolation from his family, coupled with what he describes as the “emotional trauma” of the time spent in detention, stir a “deep sadness” inside him. Guevara said he frequently breaks into tears and is having difficulty sleeping.
“I think if the gringos only knew how much love and how much respect I have for their country, they would have never kicked me out,” he said.
‘Maybe I deserve this’
Even as he searches for emotional stability in his new life, Guevara has gone back to work, once again covering immigration enforcement — now with the dubious benefit of firsthand experience with arrest, detention and deportation.
He has started work on a book and is conducting interviews with fellow deportees in El Salvador.
But Guevara’s audience in metro Atlanta continues sending tips about ICE sightings in the area, so he is able to update his popular social media pages, which has helped him retain the support of most of his corporate sponsors.
On Facebook, Guevara has picked up thousands of followers since his deportation and now reaches an audience of 812,000 people.
Guevara is also traveling internationally for the first time in decades, reporting with trips to Colombia and Costa Rica and attending a journalism conference in Portugal.
Still, he is quick to say he would trade all the new opportunities for his old life in Georgia.
Since his release from ICE custody, Guevara says he has been approached by other immigrant journalists based in the U.S.
“They asked me, ‘Mario, what advice do you have for us?’ I told them not to mess with ICE. You may have a work permit, you may have a green card, but still, don’t mess with ICE. You’ll end up losing,” he said.
Guevara had a work permit at the time of his arrest, but no permanent legal status, although he had a case for residency through his U.S.-born children.
Looking back, Guevara says he likely took too big of a risk with his reporting, which often had him following ICE agents across metro Atlanta and documenting immigration arrests.
“It was imprudent of me to be after them, right? Maybe I deserve this,” he said. “But I feel that the punishment has been excessive.”
Guevara is holding on to hope that he may be able to legally reunite with his family in Georgia, but he says the earliest he thinks that may happen is three years from now, when the Trump administration vacates the White House.
“Even if it’s Republicans (who succeed Trump), I think they would be a little more humane and merciful,” Guevara said.
Before then, he is looking forward to a visit from his two youngest children, one in his early 20s, the other a teenager.
They are the only U.S. citizens in his family, so they can travel internationally and won’t have issues when reentering the country. Guevara said the thought of spending Christmas and New Year’s with them brings him peace.
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