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Mario Guevara has stated he might have been “the initial” immigrant journalist that Donald Trump’s administration removed from the US while working – but the award-winning journalist added: “I don’t believe [I’ll] be the only one.”

“Just be careful because [immigration agents are] very aggressive,” Guevara stated recently from El Salvador in a online discussion hosted by the US Freedom of the Press Tracker, when he was questioned whether he had any message for other colleagues from abroad in the industry. “They demonstrated they are – they don’t care about journalists. They distrust the media.”

He added: “They think the media [are] opposed to them. They see the media as an adversary … They wield authority. They are able to do everything they want. It can be risky for us.”

Guevara issued that chilling admonition amid what seemed like the journalist’s most detailed public comments yet on his situation, which ended with his expulsion from the US on 3 October as the federal immigration crackdown pursued by Trump throughout his second term continued.

On Sunday, three days following Guevara’s interview, the British journalist Sami Hamdi was detained by US officials at San Francisco international airport.

A government official said Hamdi was slated for removal after his arrest and visa revocation – a plight which the advocacy group alleged was retaliation for the commentator’s having criticized Israel while traveling in the US.

“We are journalists – we try to be objective, but sometimes we must cover what is happening,” Guevara told the Tracker’s Briana Erickson. “They may believe we are against them even if it’s not true.

“You might face backlash for that. That happened to me. Perhaps I was the first one – but I don’t think [I’ll] be the only one.”

Background and Detention

Guevara had been recognized in the Atlanta area for more than 20 years, after fleeing El Salvador to avoid leftist militias in 2004. He possessed a employment authorization, and two of his children are US citizens, when he headed out to broadcast anti-Trump “No Kings Day” protests in June.

As Guevara described to Erickson, on that day, he reported on an afternoon protest outside Atlanta that officials responded to more aggressively than they did an prior protest which a US citizen fellow journalist chronicled.

“It was a really bad decision for me,” Guevara said, explaining how an agent who overheard him speaking Spanish into a camera arrested him.

Guevara suggested to the Tracker that he believed his reporting in Spanish at the moment got him targeted for detention that day. “I noticed them observing me,” said Guevara, whose journalism had earned multiple regional Emmy prizes and honors. “Maybe it’s because I’m Hispanic.”

Local prosecutors dropped the charges on which Guevara was arrested. But he remained in custody with an immigration judge in 2012 having denied Guevara’s bid to stay in the US on grounds of asylum.

Guevara had appealed that 2012 decision to a body which examines immigration decisions. But that appeal had not been resolved when officials agreed to administratively close Guevara’s case.

Court Case and Deportation

During complex court processes that unfolded after his arrest, Guevara’s attorneys argued that he had obtained permission to live and work in the US. They also said the intent of arresting Guevara was to silence his reporting, which violated his legal protections.

The government, in response, countered that the only reason the force of the government targeted Guevara was because he was in the US without authorization. And the government – whose leader frequently wages war against the press – succeeded in reopening Guevara’s old immigration case and finally removing him to El Salvador.

Guevara informed Erickson that on the night before his deportation he was allowed 20 minutes to contact the relatives he was parting from in the US and say goodbye. He said his handling recalled incidents that victimized him while covering protests as a journalist in El Salvador before applying for refuge in the US.

“It’s not the way I wanted to come back to my country – deported like a offender,” Guevara said to Erickson. “I was disappointed, but until the last minute I still had the belief to stay in the United States because I trust the justice of the country.”

Optimism and Future

Based on his conversation with Erickson, Guevara had not lost hope of one day coming back to the US, where he said he had a fully paid house and was striving for legal permanent residency at the time of his deportation.

“I labored hard during the last 20 years,” Guevara said. “I have my own home, my own cars, you know – all; my American dream.

“But in a instant, they altered everything for me.”