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A journalist in Georgia who livestreamed his own arrest while covering a No Kings protest about two weeks ago is now fighting deportation to El Salvador. Lawyers for Mario Guevara say that he is authorized to work in the U.S. and should be released. But the Department of Homeland Security claims that it has grounds for deportation. From member station WABE in Atlanta, Chamian Cruz has more.
CHAMIAN CRUZ, BYLINE: Mario Guevara is believed to be the only journalist facing deportation under Trump's push for greater immigration enforcement. He is being held in south Georgia's Folkston ICE Processing Center. Giovanni Diaz is his attorney.
GIOVANNI DIAZ: Right now, the process is trying to get him released so he can be with his family and continue litigating his case.
CRUZ: Guevara was arrested on misdemeanor charges, including obstruction of law enforcement officers and unlawful assembly. His family says they had prepared to welcome him home on Father's Day, but instead he was transferred from the county jail into ICE custody. Diaz says he expects Guevara will be granted bond early next month.
DIAZ: We're confident that we'll be able to get that hearing as soon as possible.
CRUZ: The Department of Homeland Security says Guevara is in ICE custody because he entered the country illegally in 2004, not because he is a journalist. Guevara has an application pending for a green card through his son, who is a U.S. citizen. Guevara once worked as a reporter for Georgia's largest Spanish-language newspaper, Mundo Hispanico, before launching his own online news site, MG News. His arrest sparked outcry from press freedom organizations, including the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling for his release. Here's the group's Katherine Jacobsen.
KATHERINE JACOBSEN: It seems a waste of resources to hold Guevara, again, who is in the United States legally, in ICE detention and carry out these court proceedings when his initial detention was a violation of his First Amendment rights to be there covering a matter of public interest.
CRUZ: About a week after his arrest, Guevara faced new criminal charges. A local sheriff in another metro Atlanta county says that in May, he ran a red light while covering a police operation. It's not clear what the new charges could mean for Guevara's immigration case.
For NPR News, I'm Chamian Cruz in Atlanta. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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