(New York) A Salvadoral journalist established for two decades in the United States has been threatened with expulsion after being arrested in full coverage of anti-Trump demonstrations, then transferred to the federal immigration police, a press defense organization said on Wednesday.
On Saturday, journalist Mario Guevara covered live in Spanish on social networks “No Kings” demonstrations (no kings), the greater popular mobilization since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, when agents approached him to arrest him.
“Let me finish (…) I did not hurt anything,” says in English Mr. Guevara to these police officers without opposing his arrest broadcast live on his Facebook channel, which has 783,000 subscribers.
According to these images, Mr. Guevara wore a “press” bullet-proof vest and a protection helmet, when he covers demonstrations in the county of Dekalb, near Atlanta, in Georgia.
“Abolish the ICE (the immigration police),” shouted shortly before his arrest of the demonstrators near the police and Mr. Guevara, a journalist specializing in the issues related to immigration, which also earned him an Emmy Awards in 2023.
“We are alarmed to learn that journalist Mario Guevara, holder of a work permit in the United States, was transferred to the Center for the Detention of Immigration and Customs Services (ICE) after being arrested while he was covering a demonstration,” said the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), describing this case of “disturbing erosion in the United States”.
In a detailed letter, written at the county of Dekalb, the CPJ argued that Mr. Guevara “did not empower the work of the police, but document a demonstration” and worried about his possible expulsion from the United States.
During a hearing on Monday, a judge asked for his liberation on bond, but the immigration police gave a notice of detention towards him, a measure to keep a person in police custody while waiting for his expulsion from the American territory, said the CPJ in his letter.
“There is absolutely no reason to expel a long-standing journalist to work in the United States,” added the Foundation for Press Freedom, an American organization that supports independent reporters.
Since his return to power in January, US President Donald Trump has multiplied initiatives to expel as many so -called “clandestine” immigrants, especially towards Salvador, where some are detained in a high security prison.
Solicited by AFP, the immigration police did not immediately comment on this information.
