Question Everything

After journalist Mario Guevara was arrested while covering an anti-ICE protest, ICE moved him into their detention. As his lawyers and the ACLU tried to get Mario free, ICE argued again and again that he shouldn’t be let out, because his journalism made him too dangerous.

Mario was behind bars for 111 days. Then deported to El Salvador.

If you’re wondering where the hell the first amendment is in all this, so are we!

In the second episode in our special two-part series about Mario Guevara, we look into how the federal government targeted and detained a reporter, and ultimately fast-tracked his deportation–his first amendment rights be damned.

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Guests:

Mario Guevara, MG News

Giovanni Diaz, ESQ.

Scarlet Kim, ACLU

Curtis Clemmons, former Gwinnett Sheriff's Deputy and Retired Assistant Chief of Gwinnett County Police

This episode has been updated to reflect the fact that the news outlet Mario did an interview with from El Salvador was not Fox News -- it was a local Fox affiliate in Atlanta.

In June, journalist Mario Guevara was arrested while covering an anti-ICE protest in Georgia, transferred to ICE detention, and locked up by the federal government for more than 100 days. And that wasn’t even the worst of it.

But Mario is not the kind of ICE-criticizing reporter you might be picturing. He was a Trump-supporting, Republican-identifying, law-and-order-sympathizing immigration hawk, who knew ICE well and had covered them favorably for years. Why did the Trump administration still go after him?

This is the first in a special two-part series about Mario Guevara.

Please take 5 minutes to fill out this survey about Question Everything – it’ll help us know who’s listening and what you want from us! Thank you.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Sign up for our Substack newsletter, where we’ve been covering the big landmark lawsuits against social media companies for harming people with their products. This week: Mark Zuckerberg’s rare testimony in an LA courtroom.

Guests:

Mario Guevara, MG News

Emily Wu Pearson, WABE

Giovanni Diaz, ESQ.

Scarlet Kim, ACLU

This episode has been updated to reflect the fact that Mario Guevara had a Social Security card before his immigration case was administratively closed, not after. His subsequent green card petition was also unrelated.

A little message from host Brian Reed about a scary incident he’s dealing with. And much scarier incidents other journalists are dealing with.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Sign up for our newsletter to see Brian’s interview with Senator Dick Durbin about his effort to repeal Section 230.

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Our managing editor, Kevin Sullivan, had a conversation this week with an old colleague in Minnesota that we wanted to share with you as quickly as we could. He’s a former data journalist, Michael Corey, who lives with his family in St. Paul. As ICE agents have flooded Mike’s state as part of a massive federal immigration enforcement operation, he started getting involved in grassroots efforts to track and document ICE’s conduct. He’s been following and filming agents during tense encounters, including one where they chased an American citizen into a building, pinned him against a wall, and arrested him.

Mike takes us inside what it’s like to live in Minnesota right now, and tells us how he and his neighbors are getting and trying to verify information with the encrypted messaging app, Signal, which he thinks deserves a Pulitzer.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Sign up for our Substack.

Guests:

Mike Corey, Minnesota dad & public historian

As ICE agents have continued to threaten and kill people in Minneapolis and Minnesota’s governor and other state officials plead with the agency to leave, we share an interview with the governor of another state that was recently targeted by ICE: JB Pritzker of Illinois.

In October, as ICE agents were descending on Chicago in “Operation Midway Blitz”, Ben Smith and Max Tani of the Mixed Signals podcast from Semafor spoke to Governor Pritzker about the novel communications tactics he was using to combat ICE’s incursion into his city. Eventually he was successful in stopping President Trump from sending in National Guard troops, and Border Patrol agents left the city.

It was an urgent and timely conversation with lots of significance as we watch a similar situation unfold daily in Minnesota.

Thanks to Semafor for letting us share this interview with you. Find all episodes of Mixed Signals here.

Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter here.

The hosts are on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.Please rate and review our show – on this very app that you’re in right now! And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.