Journalist detained at anti-Trump protests threatened

A Salvadoran journalist who has lived in the United States for two decades faces deportation after being detained while covering anti-Trump protests, a media rights group said Wednesday.

Mario Guevara was covering the “No Kings” protests live in Spanish on social media on Saturday, the largest popular mobilization since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, when officers approached him to detain him.

“Let me finish… I did nothing wrong,” Guevara told police in English, without objecting to his arrest, which was broadcast live on his Facebook channel, which has 783,000 followers.

According to the images, Guevara wore a bulletproof vest with the “Press” logo and a protective helmet while covering the protests in DeKalb County, near Atlanta, Georgia.

“Stop ICE,” protesters chanted shortly before his arrest, near police and Guevara, a journalist specializing in immigration issues, for which he won an Emmy in 2023.

“We are alarmed to learn that journalist Mario Guevara, who is authorized to work in the United States, has been transferred to an ICE detention center after being detained while covering a protest,” the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement, calling the incident “a disturbing erosion of press freedom in the United States.”

In a detailed letter to DeKalb County, CPJ argued that Guevara “was not obstructing police work, but documenting a protest” and expressed concern about his possible deportation from the United States.

At a hearing on Monday, a judge ordered his release on bail, but immigration authorities issued a detention order, a measure that allows a person to be held in custody until they are removed from the United States, CPJ said in its letter.

“There is absolutely no reason to deport a journalist with long-standing authorization to work in the United States,” added the Press Freedom Foundation, a US organization that supports independent reporters.

Since returning to power in January, US President Donald Trump has stepped up efforts to deport as many illegal immigrants as possible, particularly to El Salvador, where some are being held in a maximum security prison known for human rights abuses.