Spanish-speaking journalist remains detained on ice despite being awarded bonds | US Immigration

A week after the immigration judge awarded him bonds, he was a Spanish-speaking journalist who was arrested in protests last month but remained in federal custody.

Police outside Atlanta arrested Mario Guevara during a June 14 protest, and a few days later he was handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He was held at an immigration detention center in Foxton – Southeast Georgianear the Florida border – an immigration judge awarded him a deposit last week.

But when his family tried to pay the $7,500 bond last week, the ICE did not accept it, and he has since been reorganized between three other prisons.

“We believe there seems to be a consistent effort between different jurisdictions to get him in custody,” Diaz said.

Guevara, 47, fled El Salvador twenty years ago Atlanta area. He worked for many years in the Spanish-language newspaper Mundo Hispanico before starting a digital news media called MG News. When local police arrested him, he performed a live video on social media at the Dickalb County rally, protesting against Donald Trump’s administration.

Diaz said Guevara had been authorized to work and remain in the country. The lawyer said the previous immigration case against him ended administratively more than a decade ago, and he had a green card application sponsored by his adult U.S. citizen son.

Diaz said Guevara’s family tried to pay online several times after immigration judge James Ward granted him a deposit, but would not pass. Then they went to pay in person, and Bing refused to accept it.

“We don’t know what happened in the background,” Diaz said.

Another attorney at Guevara was then told that he was being transferred to Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta, because there was an open warrant for arresting him on traffic charges. He was taken to Gwennett Prison last Thursday and was released in Bond that day.

Diaz said he was taken back to the Ice Detention Center at the time because his immigration deposit had not been paid. He was taken to Floyd County, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta, where the county sheriff’s office reached a deal to detain people on the ice.

Floyd County jail records show he has been detained there until Monday. Diaz said Guevara was then transferred to a federal prison bureau in Atlanta where he stayed Tuesday.

Diaz said the immigration judge agreed with Guevara’s lawyer that journalists were not dangerous to the community, but the ICE saw him as a threat and should not be released.

“We think it’s overdoing,” the attorney said. Diaz is characterized by development, Guevara was told his phone was confiscated under a search warrant when she was detained in Gwinnett County.

Video of his arrest shows Guevara wearing a bright red shirt with her breasts printed on the “pressure” vest that protects the vest. He can be heard telling a policeman: “I am a member of the media, an officer.” He is standing on the sidewalk with other journalists, and there is no sign of a large crowd or confrontation around him before he is taken away.

DeKalb police accused Guevara of illegal assembly, obstructing police officers and pedestrians on the road or along the line. His lawyer worked hard to get him free and received a Bond award at Dekalb, but Ice caught him and he was detained until they came to pick him up.

DeKalb County attorney Donna Coleman dismissed the allegations June 25, saying that while there were possible reasons to support the arrest, there was not enough evidence to support the prosecution.

“At the time of arrest, video evidence showed that Mr. Guevara was usually qualified and did not prove his intention to ignore the law enforcement directive,” her office said in a press release.

Guevara’s arrest immediately attracted widespread attention and was criticized by press freedom groups, which said he was just doing his own work.

On June 20, the Sheriff Gwennett’s office said it was arrested for distracted driving, failure to obey traffic control equipment and reckless driving to arrest the warrant, saying he “compromises operational integrity and endangers the safety of victims”, “The Safety of Victims in Law Enforcement Cases”, researchers, researchers, GWINNETT residents.

The initial incident reported that the allegations were caused by the May 20 incident and said the allegations were reported on June 17 three days after the protests were arrested. The narrative part of the report does not provide any details. Diaz said it was unusual for an officer to vow to arrest a warrant for such an offence on the scene to be charged with a traffic violation a month later.

“It’s not all normal,” Diaz said.