A Spanish-language journalist, Mario Guevara, was deported to El Salvador on Friday after spending several months in immigration detention in Georgia. Guevara, 48, had been arrested by local police while covering a protest near Atlanta on June 14 and was later transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
Guevara’s lawyers fought for his release through both immigration and federal court systems but were unsuccessful. The Board of Immigration Appeals ordered his deportation last month, and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to halt the order earlier this week.
In a Facebook live video posted after arriving in El Salvador, Guevara is seen greeting his mother and expressing mixed emotions about returning home: “Hello, Mom,” he said into the screen. He then added, “My country, my country, my country. Thank God. This isn’t how I wanted to come to my country, but thank God.” Later social media posts showed him eating traditional Salvadoran food and stating that he was “ready to continue working twice as hard from my country.”
All criminal charges against Guevara related to his arrest were dismissed by local prosecutors. His attorneys claimed that his detention was retaliatory and intended to silence him as a journalist.
The incident has drawn criticism from journalism and civil liberties organizations. Katherine Jacobsen of the Committee to Protect Journalists stated in an email: “It is shameful that the U.S. government is deporting Guevara, the first time that CPJ has documented this type of retaliation related to reporting activity.” She described it as “a troubling sign of the deteriorating freedom of the press under the Trump administration.”
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security have denied any connection between Guevara’s work as a journalist and his detention or deportation, citing his lack of legal status in the United States.
Guevara fled El Salvador about twenty years ago out of fear for his safety and established himself as a prominent journalist within Atlanta’s Hispanic community. He previously worked at Mundo Hispanico before founding MG News last year.
At the time of his arrest, he was livestreaming coverage from a protest against President Donald Trump’s administration policies when DeKalb County police detained him. Video footage shows Guevara identifying himself as press while wearing gear marked with “PRESS.” No large crowds or confrontations were present during his arrest.
After initial criminal charges in two counties were dropped, an immigration judge granted him bond in July; however, he remained detained while authorities appealed that decision.
Guevara had previously been denied permission to stay in the U.S., but lawyers argued he had lived and worked legally for more than a decade under administrative closure agreements tied to an ongoing visa application supported by his adult son who is a U.S citizen.
While one case challenging Guevara’s continued detention remains open in federal court—where lawyers allege unconstitutional retaliation—the Board of Immigration Appeals moved forward with reopening an older case against him this summer rather than sending it back down for further review despite requests from defense attorneys.
Guevara’s legal team maintains that decisions leading up to his deportation relied on incorrect information.
