Spanish-language journalist arrested while covering protest near Atlanta deported to El Salvador
Oct 3, 2025, 12:52 PM | Updated: 4:56 pm
FILE - Mario Guevara, the metro Atlanta-based Spanish-language reporter, covers a protest against immigration enforcement on Buford Highway in Georgia, on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
A Spanish-language journalist who had been in immigration detention in Georgia since June was deported Friday to El Salvador.
Mario Guevara, 48, was covering a protest just outside Atlanta on June 14 when local police arrested him and then turned him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement several days later. His lawyers had been fighting parallel battles in the immigration court and federal court systems trying to get him released.
In a live video posted on Facebook Friday afternoon, Guevara is seen, escorted by El Salvador government officials, exiting a vehicle and hugging a woman who pointed a camera phone at him. “Hello, Mom,” he said.
He looked toward the sky and said, “My country, my country, my country. Thank God. This isn’t how I wanted to come to my country, but thank God.”
Guevara’s deportation comes after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday declined to put a hold on a deportation order issued last month by the Board of Immigration Appeals.
All criminal charges filed against Guevara since his arrest were dismissed by local prosecutors. His attorneys argued that he was being held in retaliation for his work as a journalist and to silence him, in violation of his constitutional rights.
Guevara fled El Salvador two decades ago out of fear, and he amassed a big audience as a journalist in the Atlanta area. He worked for Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language newspaper, for years before starting a digital news outlet called MG News a year ago. He was livestreaming video on social media from a “No Kings” rally protesting President Donald Trump’s administration when local police arrested him in DeKalb County.
He is known for arriving on the scene where ICE or other law enforcement agencies are active, often after getting tips from community members. He regularly livestreams what he is seeing on social media.
Video from his arrest shows Guevara wearing a bright red shirt under a protective vest with “PRESS” printed across his chest. He could be heard telling a police officer, “I’m a member of the media, officer.” He was standing on a sidewalk with other journalists, with no sign of big crowds or confrontations around him, moments before he was taken away.
The charges against him in DeKalb County, as well as other charges that were filed in neighboring Gwinnett County after his arrest, were dismissed by prosecutors. An immigration judge in July granted him bond, but he remained in custody while the government appealed that ruling.
An immigration case in 2012 denied Guevara’s bid to remain in the U.S. He appealed that ruling to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which hears appeals of immigration court rulings, but that appeal had not been decided when prosecutors agreed to administratively close the case. His lawyers say he has been authorized to live and work in the U.S. for the last 13 years.
Shortly after Guevara entered ICE custody in June, the government asked the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen that old immigration case. His lawyers didn’t oppose that move, but they asked that the case be sent back to the lower immigration court because he now has a pending application for a visa supported by his adult U.S. citizen son.
The Board of Immigration Appeals last month agreed to reopen the case, dismissed Guevara’s appeal and denied his request to return the case to the lower immigration court. It also ordered him deported to El Salvador and dismissed the government’s appeal of the bond ruling, saying it is now moot.
Guevara’s lawyers appealed to the 11th Circuit and asked that court to halt the deportation order while the appeal was pending. Guevara’s lawyers argue that the Board of Immigration Appeals ruling and the subsequent refusal by the 11th Circuit to stay his deportation order are based on incorrect information.
A separate case challenged the constitutionality of Guevara’s detention in immigration custody and remains pending in a federal court. His lawyers argued he was being punished for his journalism work and asked a judge to order him immediately released and order that he not be deported while that case was pending.
