Journalists arrested in summer ice protests are deported to El Salvador

Award-winning Spanish journalist Mario Guevara was deported to El Salvador, with the demand of a “press freedom advocate” to “retaliate for his report”.

Leaders of the Committee on Protection of Journalists (CPJ), a nonprofit that defends global press freedom, said Guevara’s deportation from the U.S. on Friday morning was the first time the organization has documented such retaliation associated with reporting activities.

“It’s no doubt that this is not a simple immigration case,” said Katherine Jacobsen, coordinator of the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean program at CPJ.

Guevara arrived in El Salvador on Friday, where he was released by the El Salvador immigration authorities.

“I feel sad, but I’m also happy to be in my homeland,” CNN said. “I mean, they didn’t enforce me. Maybe the racist government wants to enforce me.”

“And I’m in my homeland,” he said. “So, at the end of the day, I think it’s a blessing.”

Local law enforcement arrested Guevara in June an anti-Trump “King-free” demonstration near Atlanta, Georgia.

Guevara filed three misdemeanor charges against him for illegal assembly, obstruction and pedestrians on the road. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials issued detainees to him despite the judge’s order to release the bonds.

Ice moved him to the Folkston Ice machining center in southern Georgia, and later moved him to two other detention centers.

Even after an immigration judge ordered his Bond to be released, Bing took him into custody after all misdemeanor charges against him were dropped. His family tried to pay ICE $7,500 in bonds, but all attempts were denied, according to the Associated Press. Guevara also sued the Trump administration in August, believing he was unconstitutional.

Guevara, founder and journalist of MG News, has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. He reportedly entered the country legally in 2004 and applied for asylum in 2005, fearing that El Salvador would endanger El Salvador due to his job as a journalist.

“Mario Guevara is here legally here in the country, but again, his goal is to remove him because the government doesn’t like him exercising his First Amendment rights,” said Nora Benavidez, senior adviser to the media advocacy group, in a statement. “It’s devastating to see the government abandon the core press freedom principle established by the United States.”

In a statement to the Hills, the DHS assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, said the DHS was “happy to report Mario Guevara’s return to her home in El Salvador”.

McLaughlin added: “If you come to our country and violate our laws, we will arrest you and you will never return.”

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