Lawyers for Spanish-language journalist in ICE custody fear deportation after unfavorable ruling

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ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyers for a Spanish-language journalist who has been in immigration detention in Georgia since June said Friday they're worried his deportation could be imminent after an appeals panel reopened an old immigration case against him and ordered him sent back to El Salvador.

Local police just outside Atlanta arrested Mario Guevara while he was covering a protest on June 14, and he was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. An immigration judge in July granted him bond, but he remained in custody while the government appealed.

All criminal charges filed against Guevara after his arrest have been dismissed. An immigration case against him was administratively closed more than a decade ago, and his lawyers have said he was authorized to live and work in the U.S. He's being punished for doing his work as a journalist — particularly filming ICE and other law enforcement activity — in violation of his constitutional rights, his lawyers have argued.

The Board of Immigration Appeals, which hears appeals of immigration court rulings, on Friday dismissed the government's appeal of the bond order, saying it was moot. The order says records show that the board had denied Guevara's appeal of a previous deportation order. The board said the deportation order is now final and that neither an immigration judge nor the board has the authority to set a bond.

But lawyers for Guevara argue that the board's order is based on incorrect information. In a separate case they have filed in federal court, a judge held an emergency hearing Friday afternoon at their request and asked both sides to file briefs with more information. They said in a filing that they feared the Board of Immigration Appeals decision “could have immediate consequences.”

The appeals board based its ruling on a decision in an immigration case against Guevara from 13 years ago, said Scarlet Kim, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. The immigration judge in that case rejected Guevara's bid to stay in the U.S. but granted him voluntary departure rather than ordering him deported, Kim said.

Guevara appealed that ruling to the Board of Immigration Appeals at the time, but while that appeal was pending, the government agreed to administratively close the case, and he was granted authorization to live and work in the U.S., his lawyers have said.

When he was taken into ICE custody in June, the government sought to reopen that old case. His immigration attorney asked that the matter be sent back to an immigration judge because Guevara now has a pathway to legal residency and a petition pending through his U.S. citizen adult son, Kim said. The Board of Immigration Appeals also rejected that request.

Kim said the Board of Immigration Appeal's ruling Friday incorrectly said that an immigration judge had ordered him deported and based its ruling on that incorrect information.

“We don't know what the status of his actual deportation is, but his immigration counsel is concerned that he's going to be deported ASAP based on their understanding of what happens when the government thinks there's a final order of removal in place," Kim said.

Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment on the government's plans for Guevara.

Guevara, 48, fled El Salvador two decades ago out of fear, and amassed a big audience as a journalist in the Atlanta area. He worked for Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language newspaper, for years before starting a digital news outlet called MG News a year ago. He was livestreaming video on social media from a “No Kings” rally protesting President Donald Trump’s administration when local police arrested him in DeKalb County.

Guevara is known for arriving on the scene where ICE or other law enforcement agencies are active, often after getting tips from community members. He regularly livestreams what he’s seeing on social media.

Video from his arrest shows Guevara wearing a bright red shirt under a protective vest with “PRESS” printed across his chest. He could be heard telling a police officer, “I’m a member of the media, officer.” He was standing on a sidewalk with other journalists, with no sign of big crowds or confrontations around him, moments before he was taken away.

Police charged Guevara with unlawful assembly, obstruction of police and being a pedestrian on or along the roadway. He was granted bond in DeKalb, but ICE had put a hold on him and he was held until they came to pick him up.

DeKalb County Solicitor-General Donna Coleman-Stribling on June 25 dismissed the charges, saying that video showed that Guevara was “generally in compliance and does not demonstrate the intent to disregard law enforcement directives.”

The sheriff’s office in neighboring Gwinnett County announced on June 20, that once Guevara was already in ICE custody, it had secured warrants against him on charges of distracted driving, failure to obey a traffic control device and reckless driving. Gwinnett County Solicitor-General Lisamarie Bristol announced July 10 that she would not pursue those charges.