UPDATE: After publication, Mario Guevara’s attorney Giovanni Díaz said on July 3 that despite posting bond, Guevara was transferred from ICE custody into the custody of the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO). GCSO filed separate, traffic-related charges against Guevara the date back over a month after he was already taken into ICE custody.
Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention on a $7,500 bond Tuesday morning, according to his attorneys. Guevara was arrested at an anti-ICE protest in DeKalb County on June 14 and then transferred to ICE custody on June 18.
Guevara’s Spanish-language news outlet, MG News, and his lawyers, Diaz & Gaeta, announced the news in a July 1 Facebook post, following a scheduled bond hearing before a federal immigration judge. “The immigration procedure continues, but he is free and in Atlanta,” they said in Spanish.
Guevara told NotiVisión Georgia that he was locked in a solitary cell for 21 hours per day at the Folkston ICE Processing Center, right by the Florida border.
While conditions were cleaner than at the DeKalb County Jail, he said, the isolation took a psychological toll. “It was horrible. I felt like my chest was going to burst out. It went boom, boom, boom, and I put my hands on my head – I wanted to scream,” he told the outlet in Spanish.
Guevara said ICE told him he was in a solitary cell to “keep him safe,” because he was a well known figure. His case has attracted national media attention and public outcry in DeKalb County over how police handled the June 14 anti-ICE protest that he was covering when he was arrested.
Doraville Police officers arrested Guevara — wearing a ‘PRESS’ vest — after he stepped out onto the roadway while retreating from officers in riot gear and filming. They were operating under the direction of the DeKalb County Police Department, since the protest was held in unincorporated DeKalb.
ICE placed a detainer hold on Guevara while he was in police custody at the DeKalb Jail, then picked him up and transferred him to the Folkston ICE Processing Center on June 18.
On June 25, the DeKalb Solicitor-General dropped the three misdemeanor charges against Guevara: unlawful assembly, pedestrian improperly entering a roadway, and obstruction of law enforcement. However, he is still under a removal order from ICE.
