A reporter for Georgia's largest Spanish-language newspaper who frequently writes about immigration issues has recently found himself caught up in his own immigration drama.

When an immigration judge last month denied Mario Guevara's application for asylum and ordered him and his family to leave the country within 60 days, his world was turned upside down. Guevara said he left El Salvador in 2004 after he was beaten and repeatedly harassed by leftist groups because of his work as a political reporter for La Prensa Grafica, a conservative newspaper with close ties to the political party that was in power at the time, according to documents filed in an Atlanta immigration court.

Immigration authorities have spoken to Guevara and his lawyer to try to resolve the situation, but for the last few weeks Guevara has felt much like the people he so often writes about.

"I wrote a lot of stories about immigration. I feel like I'm one of my sources," he said Thursday. "I'm one more victim of the immigration system."