A week after an immigration judge granted him the bond, a Spanish-language journalist who was arrested while covering the protests last month is still in federal custody.
Police just outside Atlanta arrested Mario Guevara while in charge of the protest on June 14th, and were handed over to immigration customs a few days later. He was in custody last week at the immigration detention center in Folkestone, southeast Georgia, near the Florida border, when an immigration judge gave him bonds last week.
However, when his family tried to pay the $7,500 bond last week, Ice didn’t accept it and he was shuffled among the other three prisons, his lawyer Giovanni Diaz said.
“We believe there appears to be a coordinated effort between different jurisdictions to continue to hold him in custody,” Diaz said.
Guevara has built a massive supporter
Guevara, 47, fled El Salvador 20 years ago, attracting a loyal audience as a journalist covering immigrants in the Atlanta area. He worked for years at Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish newspaper, before starting a digital news outlet called MG News. He had registered a videorestreet on social media for the DeCalve County rally, protesting President Donald Trump’s administration when local police arrested him.
Guevara is permitted to work and stay in the country, Diaz said. Previous immigration cases against him had been administratively closed more than a decade ago, and he has a pending green card application sponsored by the son of his adult US citizen, the lawyer said.
After immigration judge James Ward granted him the bond, Guevara’s family tried to pay online several times, but it didn’t go through, Diaz said. They then went to pay it directly and Ice refused to accept it, he said.
“What we didn’t know was what was going on in the background,” Diaz said. They explained that they learned that ICE was trying to release him to the Immigration Appeals Committee, and asked him to hold the bond order while it was pending.
I moved from prison to prison
Another attorney for Guevara was said to have been transferred to Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta. He was taken to Gwinnett Prison last Thursday, in which case he was released on the same day.
Diaz said he was redirected to ice custody at that point because his immigrant bonds had not been paid. He was taken to Floyd County, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta, and the county sheriff’s office has agreed to detain people for the ice.
Floyd County Jail records show he was in custody there until Monday. Diaz said Guevara was moved to the Federal Prisons Bureau in Atlanta and remained on Tuesday.
The immigration judge argues that journalists are not dangerous to the community, but that Ice is so threatening that he shouldn’t be released, Diaz said.
“We think it’s too much,” the lawyer said. And in what Diaz characterized in relation to development, Guevara was told that his phone was confiscated under a search warrant while in Gwinnett County.
During a press conference before the G7 Summit, President Donald Trump said he has targeted the rise in ice attacks on Democratic-led cities and has repeated unsupported claims that city leaders are using undocumented immigrants to rock the election.
A video of Guevara’s arrest appears
Videos from his arrest show Guevara wearing a bright red shirt under a protective vest with a “press” printed on his chest. He could hear the officer say, “I’m a member of the media, a police officer.” He was standing on the sidewalk with other journalists. Before he was taken away there were no signs of a large crowd or conflict around him.
Dekalb police accused Guevara of illegal gatherings, police obstruction and pedestrians along the road. His lawyers worked to release him, and he was given bonds in DeKalb, but Ice had captured him and he was held captive until he came to pick him up.
On June 25, Dekalb County Solicitor Donna Coleman-Striving said there were possible causes for the arrest, but there was no sufficient evidence to support the prosecution.
“At the time of his arrest, video evidence shows Guevara, who is generally compliant and does not demonstrate his intention to ignore law enforcement instructions,” her office said in a news release.
A traffic charge was submitted amid protests against the arrest
Guevara’s arrest soon attracted widespread attention and was criticized by the Press Freedom Groups.
On June 20, the Gwinnett Sheriff’s Office said it had secured a warrant for Guevara’s arrest on charges of distracting driving, failure to comply with traffic control devices and reckless driving.
According to the first case report, the charges stem from the May 20 incident and were reported on June 17th three days after his arrest in the protest. The story section of the report does not provide details. Diaz said people charged with traffic violations are usually charged on the spot, and it is very rare for them to swear a warrant for arrest for such violations a month later.
“This is not normal,” Diaz said.
Source link
