Immigration Reporter Denied Asylum

From CNN:

A reporter from El Salvador who has been reporting for years about immigration issues in Atlanta, Georgia, finds himself in a position similar to that of many of the sources he covers.
“I understand now what the people feel,” Mario Guevara, 34, told CNN on Friday. “Never in my life have I cried so much as in the last couple of days.”
Last month, an immigration judge turned down Guevara’s application for asylum and ordered that he, his wife and their 14-year-old daughter leave the country within 60 days. “It was the worst news of my life,” said Guevara, who works for the Spanish-language Mundo Hispanico, which is owned by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Their two younger children were born in the United States and therefore would be allowed to remain. His mother and brother, who serves in the U.S. Army, are also U.S. citizens.
The case traces back to 2003, when Guevara was working as a photojournalist for the Prensa Grafica newspaper in the capital city of San Salvador. Routinely assigned to cover anti-government demonstrations, he was accused by some of the demonstrators of working as an undercover agent for the government, which he denies. After he was attacked twice and threatened with death, he moved himself and his family to Atlanta, he said.
But he entered the country in 2004 on a tourist visa and did not immediately file the paperwork seeking asylum, he said. “I had plans to return to Salvador when the situation got better, but that never happened,” he said. Read more…

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