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https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/31/ice-georgia-sheriffs-office-combine-forces-to-keep-a-salvadoran-journalist-locked-up-indefinitely/>
"This too will be swept away by this administration’s steady stream of
injustices, but it’s still worth highlighting before it’s buried by even worse
news later.
The mass deportation program enacted by Trump — one that intends to turn ICE
into the nation’s largest federal law enforcement agency — has already seen
innocent foreigners declared “gang members,” college students arrested for
opinion pieces they wrote for the school paper, and streets, businesses,
homeless shelters, and courtrooms invaded by people in masks everyone is just
supposed to assume work for the US government and have the legal authority to
do the things they’re doing.
Due process rights have been universally ignored, along with a whole lot of
other constitutional rights, ranging from free speech protections to warrant
requirements for ICE officers.
Now, there’s this: another inexplicable — and apparently unending — violation
of constitutional rights the US has extended to foreign-born residents and
visitors for most of its history as an independent nation.
Mario Guevara, a Salvadoran journalist imprisoned in a south Georgia
immigration detention center after being arrested covering a “No Kings Day”
protest in June, is being “punished for his journalism”, first amendment
rights groups said.
“The charges were dropped, yet he remains detained by Ice,” said José
Zamora, the regional director for the Americas at the Committee to Protect
Journalists, during a press conference on Tuesday morning at the Georgia
capitol with Guevara’s attorneys and family. “Let’s be clear, Mario is being
punished for his journalism. He is now the only journalist in prison in the
US in direct retaliation for his reporting.”
And there it is: Guevara was arrested for reporting on a “No Kings Day” protest
— the nationwide protests that pissed in Trump’s birthday Cheerios so hard he
immediately walked back earlier comments suggesting he’d no longer target the
hardworking migrants employed by so many of his big business supporters.
Everything happening to journalist Mario Guevara right now is extremely
vindictive, which is extremely on-brand for the Trump administration and the
dozens of local law enforcement agencies willing to be even worse than they are
already just to score some brownie points with the current regime."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
