Spanish-language reporter arrested at Atlanta-area protest; faces deportation

Mario Guevara, a Spanish-language reporter who covers immigration issues, was arrested at an anti-Trump protest in Chamblee, Georgia, near Atlanta, on June 14, 2025, according to multiple media accounts.

He is now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and faces deportation.

The protest was one of hundreds of “No Kings” demonstrations nationwide that denounced President Donald Trump’s administration and were organized against the backdrop of a Washington, D.C., military parade commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States Army.

Guevara, one of eight people arrested at the DeKalb County, Georgia, protest, was taken into custody as he livestreamed the demonstration to his social media audience of more than 1 million followers.

In his Facebook Live video, Guevara wore a helmet and a vest that identified him as press.

“We’re going to move a little bit because the authorities are advancing this way,” he said in Spanish. “The police are moving forward quickly.”

As he walked beside a group of police officers in riot gear, he was taken to the ground.

“Officer, officer. I’m a member of the media,” he said before the video abruptly ended. “Let me finish.”

Guevara, a Salvadoran native who has been in the U.S. for over 20 years, was taken into custody by the Doraville Police Department and charged with obstruction of law enforcement, unlawful assembly, and walking along a roadway, according to police records.

Guevara built a social media following by reporting on ICE activities in Atlanta. He started his own media company, MGNews, and has been covering ICE since Trump’s first term, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“My lawyers are asking me to tone it down, to not be so aggressive,” Guevara told the newspaper in an interview about his work earlier this spring. “I’m acting as if I were a citizen … but I’m not scared.”

After Guevara’s arrest, his attorney, Giovanni Diaz, told the Journal-Constitution that ICE had issued a “detainer” against the journalist — typically an initial move in the deportation process.

ICE detainers are requests asking local jails to keep individuals in custody for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release, giving federal immigration authorities time to take them into custody.

On June 18, he was transferred to Georgia’s Folkston ICE Processing Center.

In a June 20 Facebook video, Diaz said Guevara should never have been arrested and that his firm is negotiating with the county to drop the charges. He said he is also preparing a bond request to secure Guevara’s release so he can fight his immigration case while free.

Diaz told the Journal-Constitution that Guevara lacks permanent legal status, although he has work authorization and a path to a green card through his son, who is a U.S. citizen. Diaz did not immediately return a U.S. Press Freedom Tracker request for comment.

In a post on social platform X, the Department of Homeland Security said accusations that Guevara was arrested by ICE because he is a journalist were “completely untrue” and that he was arrested for willful obstruction after he refused to comply with local police orders to move out of the street.

“Following his arrest by local authorities, ICE placed a detainer on him. Following his release, he was turned over to ICE custody and has been placed in removal proceedings,” the statement said. “This El Salvador national is in ICE custody because he entered the country illegally in 2004.”

Guevara fled El Salvador with his family in 2004 after he was beaten and repeatedly harassed because of his work as a political reporter for the newspaper La Prensa Grafica, The Associated Press reported. He later worked as a reporter for Georgia’s largest Spanish-language newspaper, Mundo Hispanico, the AP reported.

In 2012, a court rejected Guevara’s request for asylum and issued a deportation order, according to the Constitution-Journal. However, the journalist later received administrative closure, a legal process that permits an immigration judge to pause deportation proceedings.

After Guevara was transferred to ICE custody on June 18, additional misdemeanor charges were filed against him, according to the Journal-Constitution. The new charges appear to stem from an incident 31 days earlier, when he was reportedly livestreaming immigration enforcement activity while driving.

On June 20, the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem denouncing Guevara’s detention and asking that he be released on bond and removal proceedings be dropped.

“It is chilling to think of the press freedom implications of a reporter facing deportation simply because they are leveled with misdemeanor charges that directly contradict the First Amendment,” the letter said.