Still, the reporters keep going. Kaitlin Rust still files from Louisville. Andrea Sahouri still runs the metro desk in Des Moines. Jeff German’s colleagues still knock on doors. Linda Tirado wrote until she couldn’t.
And Guevara—now in San Salvador—hasn’t stopped.
“They moved me,” he said in a voice message last week, “but they didn’t stop me.”
In Atlanta, neighbors leave messages on his WhatsApp. One brings tamales. Another offers to drive Oscar to his next scan. The family trades doctor numbers in the neighborhood chat. And each night, Katherine still checks the speakerphone—just in case.
The fridge hums. The phone blinks. Somewhere, Mario hits “Go Live.”
Bibliography
1. Immigration Court Docket, Guevara Case File. Official transcript of proceedings used by ICE to justify “danger to society” ruling.
2. WAVE-TV, “Reporter Shot by Police With Pepper Balls on Live TV,” Louisville, KY (May 2020). Broadcast and transcript confirm direct targeting of journalists.
3. Sahouri v. Iowa, Court Records and Press Coverage. Describes charges against Des Moines Register journalist covering protests.
4. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “Freedom of the Press Under Fire: 2020 Report.” Documents arrests and charges filed against journalists during protests.
5. CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists), “Press Arrests in 2020,” Ongoing Case Tracker. Lists dropped cases and legal outcomes.
6. Linda Tirado, personal interview and medical report (2020). Confirmed permanent blindness in one eye from police projectile.
7. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Homicide Division Report on Jeff German (2022). Includes arrest affidavit of Clark County official.
8. Grand Jury Summons to Georgia Immigration Nonprofit, obtained by ProPublica. Verified by court document leak.
9. First Amendment Legal Defense Fund, statement on 2024 DHS court decision. Legal analysis and commentary.
10. IRS Audit Memo 2025-APR-19, redacted version released under FOIA. Questions legitimacy of newsroom litigation expenses.
11. El Faro, “Bukele’s War on the Press,” exile tracker and statement by international journalist watchdogs.
12. Joseph Goebbels, Diary Entry (March 1933), as cited in Goebbels: A Biography by Peter Longerich.
13. Benito Mussolini, Speech to the Fascist Chamber, 1926. Reprinted in The Doctrine of Fascism anthology.
14. Glavlit Directives, USSR (1930–1940), archived at Hoover Institution. Internal censorship orders.
15. DOJ Directive 040.31, effective 2025. Internal use in immigration and pre-trial risk assessments.
16. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, interview with The Atlantic, “The Strongman’s Toolkit,” (April 2025). Explains rhetorical criminalization tactics.
17. Mario Guevara, Livestream interview (May 2025), archived by Human Rights Watch.