A Georgia immigration judge has allowed a Spanish-language journalist, who was detained last month while reporting on a protest in DeKalb County, to be released on bond. However, his situation remains uncertain as the federal government is pursuing his deportation.
The Associated Press conveyed that 47-year-old Mario Guevara, originally from El Salvador, was detained by local authorities on June 14 during his coverage of a demonstration in DeKalb County, near Atlanta.
In the days following his arrest, local law enforcement handed Guevara over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has since held him in an immigration detention facility located in Folkston.
Guevara started the digital news outlet MG News nearly a year ago, and on Tuesday, the outlet shared on social media that a judge granted him bond.
Mario Guevara is fighting deportation. (Getty Images)
The charges stemmed from a May 20 incident that was reported on June 17, the AP reported.
Guevara’s attorney, Giovanni Diaz, has said his client is not a legal resident though he has authorization to work in the U.S. Guevara also has a pending green card application, which was sponsored by his U.S. citizen son, the AP reported.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on its site that it welcomed the court’s order to release Guevara, adding that the organization is concerned by the prosecution’s argument that livestreaming the protest “presented a danger to the public by compromising the integrity and safety of law enforcement activities.”
“We are heartened to see that Mario Guevara was ordered to be released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at his bond hearing, though we remain concerned about the arguments the prosecution made that Guevara’s work as a reporter presented a danger to the community,” CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen said. “The fact that Guevara was arrested while exercising his First Amendment rights as a journalist and was subsequently held for over two weeks by various law enforcement bodies sends an alarming message to the media and has effectively silenced Guevara’s coverage of his community. We urge law enforcement to thoroughly investigate why Guevara was arrested in the first place.”
