Bond granted to journalist held by ICE after arrest at Ga. protest

LUMPKIN, Ga. - An immigration judge in Georgia on Tuesday granted bond for a well-known Spanish-language journalist arrested while covering a protest last month.

That means he will be free as the government seeks to deport him.

Mario Guevara, a native of El Salvador, was arrested by local police while covering a protest just outside Atlanta and was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement several days later.

He has been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston — in southeast Georgia, near the Florida border — since then.

MG News, a digital news outlet that Guevara started about a year ago, posted on social media Tuesday that a judge had granted him bond.

Bond was set Tuesday morning at $7,500.

Federal officials said they would appeal Guevara’s bond. Ward set a date of July 31, 2025, for that hearing.

Guevara was arrested on June 14 while covering a DeKalb County protest against President Donald Trump and immigration enforcement operations.

DeKalb police charged him with unlawful assembly, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and pedestrian on or along the roadway, charges that were dropped last week.

But Guevara was later detained by ICE because he does not have permanent residency.

Eight people, including Guevara, were arrested during the protest. DeKalb County law enforcement said they had “threatened public safety and disobeyed law enforcement orders.”

Guevara has been covering immigration in the U.S. for more than two decades.

Guevara is still facing charges in Gwinnett County on distracted driving, failure to obey a traffic control device and reckless driving. He has not been arrested or detained in the county.

The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office said Guevara “compromised operational integrity and jeopardized the safety of victims” during operations conducted by the department’s Trafficking and Child Exploitation Unit.