Tag Archives: Georgia

Latin Times: Latino Journalist Arrested While Covering Immigration Protest Faces Criminal Charges

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Mario Guevara has been charged for filming an ICE operation while driving

A Latino journalist arrested while covering an immigration protest in Georgia now faces criminal charges stemming from a different incident, local media reported.

Concretely, Mario Guevara has been charged with distracted driving, failure to obey a traffic control device and reckless driving, Fox 5 Atlanta noted. The charges are related to filming an ICE operation while driving and running a red light, his lawyer said.

Immigration officials then told the outlet that Guevara has overstayed his visa and was ordered to leave the country by an immigration judge in 2012. His lawyers contend that he is authorized to work in the country. Advocates are planning to hold a demonstration on Saturday demanding his release as his lawyers work to secure a bond hearing.

Guevara, who fled El Salvador almost two decades ago, was arrested last Saturday while streaming during a different protest in DeKalb county. Videos of the incident show that Guevara can be heard telling an agent that he is a journalist before being arrested. He was also wearing a vest with the word press on the chest.

The Associated Press detailed Guevara fled El Salvador along with his family in 2004 after being beat and threatened over his work as a political reported. In the U.S., he worked for the largest Spanish-speaking outlet, Mundo Hispanico, before launching his own outlet, MGNews.

“He’s been doing this kind of work for over 20 years and is being detained now,” said his lawyer, Giovanni Diaz, to the outlet. “It’s concerning. He’s a member of the press and didn’t seem to be committing any felonies,” he added.

Latino Journalist Arrested While Covering Immigration Protest Faces Criminal Charges
Latino journalist Mario Guevara, arrested while covering an immigration protest in Georgia, is now facing criminal charges

https://www.latintimes.com/latino-journalist-arrested-while-covering-immigration-protest-faces-criminal-charges-585342

Washington Examiner: ICE sweeping up ‘essential workers’ as raids spread nationwide

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Illegal immigrant workers in the agriculture and hospitality industries continue to be targeted for arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following President Donald Trump’s recent decision not to exempt them from his deportation operation.

On Monday, 84 workers who lack legal immigration status were arrested at a southwest Louisiana racetrack, the agency announced Wednesday.

Fourteen farmworkers who work for Lynn-Ette & Sons in upstate New York’s Orleans County were taken into custody by federal immigration authorities last Friday as the White House mulled over whether to target working immigrants or focus on criminals.

The United Farm Workers union told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that it has recently identified workers in Georgia, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington who were arrested or deported, going beyond the known arrests in California, New Mexico, and Nebraska reported last week.

Rebecca Shi, CEO for the American Business Immigration Coalition, said ICE raids are being reported “across red, blue, and purple states alike.”

“We’ve heard growing concern from our members across multiple sectors,” Shi said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “What we’re seeing is a pattern of sudden, chaotic raids that don’t appear to be narrowly focused on dangerous individuals. Instead, they’re sweeping up essential workers who are doing critical jobs and contributing to their communities.”

ICE raids ‘sweeping up’ illegal immigrants at workplaces
President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation has included ICE raids at workplaces, including farms and hotels.
ICE sweeping up ‘essential workers’ as raids spread nationwide

Alternet: Trump’s ‘disturbing and unethical’ new rule allows discrimination against Dems and single women

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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has long had strict anti-discrimination rules. A VA center cannot refuse to treat a veteran because he or she is Black, Jewish, a woman or Latino, for example.

But according to The Guardian’s Aaron Glantz, an executive order from President Donald Trump allows some forms of discrimination.

In an article published on June 16, Glantz explains, “Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law. Language requiring health care professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated.”

The executive order that Glantz references in his article was issued by Trump on January 30 and titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

Glantz notes that the “primary purpose of” Trump’s executive order was “to strip most government protections from transgender people” but warned that its “far-reaching” effects could go way beyond that.

https://www.alternet.org/msn-uk/trumps-extremely-disturbing-and-unethical-va-rule-allows-for-far-reaching-discrimination

Guardian: Spanish-language journalist to be turned over to Ice after protest arrest

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El Salvador-born Mario Guevara, arrested by Georgia police on Saturday, transferred to Ice officers after bond release

Mario Guevara, a prominent Spanish-language journalist in metro Atlanta who frequently covers Immigration and customs enforcement raids, will be turned over to Ice detention after being arrested by local police while covering the “No Kings” protests.

Guevara, 47, was born in El Salvador and has been in the United States for more than 20 years. He recorded his own arrest Saturday during a raucous street protest in the Embry Hills area of north DeKalb county, an Atlanta suburban neighborhood with a large Latino population. The protest ended with riot police throwing teargas and marching protesters down the street after declaring an unlawful assembly.

…

Police charged Guevara as a pedestrian improperly entering a roadway, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and unlawful assembly. A municipal judge released Guevara on Monday on a recognisance bond – customary with misdemeanor charges. But jail staff said he would be transferred instead to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

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Ted Terry, a DeKalb county commissioner, asked the county’s staff to investigate the circumstances around the use of teargas at the event.

“The decision to deploy teargas – particularly in a neighborhood context with nearby homes and businesses – raises serious questions about the proportionality and justification of the county’s response to peaceful civil action,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for Ice in Atlanta could not immediately confirm the conditions of the immigration hold or whether Guevara faces deportation.

As a journalist with Diario CoLatino in El Salvador, he fled the country in 2004 one step ahead of threats from leftwing paramilitary groups. It took him seven years to get his first asylum hearing before a judge, the journalist told Spanish-language wire service Agencia EFE in the Los Angeles-based publication La Opinión in 2012. He described the arrest of his wife after an error in the immigration system. “The hardest part for me was seeing my three children cry as she was taken away, and me being powerless to give them the comfort and protection they need,” he said in Spanish in the interview.

Spanish-language journalist to be turned over to Ice after protest arrest
El Salvador-born Mario Guevara, arrested by Georgia police on Saturday, transferred to Ice officers after bond release

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/journalist-ice-protest-arrest-mario-guevara

Daily Beast: ICE Barbie [Bimbo #2] Asked Hegseth to Give Bombshell Order to Troops in L.A.

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In a leaked letter, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem asked the military to start arresting rioters in Los Angeles.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem has asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to instruct soldiers deployed to Los Angeles to help arrest rioters, even though the military is generally barred from domestic law enforcement.

In a leaked letter, [Bimbo #2] Noem asked Hegseth on Sunday to have the Pentagon give “direction to [Department of Defense] forces to either detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

ICE Barbie Asked Hegseth to Give Bombshell Order to Troops in L.A.
In a leaked letter, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asked the military to start arresting rioters in Los Angeles.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kristi-noem-asked-pete-hegseth-to-give-bombshell-order-to-troops-in-la

Law & Crime: ‘Disingenuous’: Judge orders Trump admin to reveal its deal with El Salvador after immigrant objects to his jailing in notorious CECOT prison

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A request for jurisdictional discovery from a Venezuelan immigrant locked up in a notorious Salvadoran prison has been granted, opening the door for the release of revelatory details into the Trump administration’s detainment deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

In a wide-ranging immigration case that intersects with others that have captured national interest, a petitioner referred to as E.D.Q.C. — reportedly previously identified as Edicson David Quintero Chacon, 28, argued he was not given prior notice of his planned deportation to El Salvador, a country with which he has no affiliation, and thus unable to raise concerns of being tortured at the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, otherwise known as CECOT, which is accused of ill-treatment.

Middle District of Georgia U.S. Magistrate Judge Amelia Helmick ruled that if such allegations of a lack of notice are true, E.D.Q.C.’s transfer to and imprisonment in CECOT is “likely unlawful.” She also firmly rejected arguments by the Trump administration that certain “privileges” exist barring them from releasing information into their deal with the Salvadoran government, saying that “the only reason El Salvador has even entered the conversation in this case” is because the U.S. government sent the petitioner there.

Trump admin ordered to reveal deal with Bukele after man objects to El Salvador jailing
Revelatory details into the Trump administration’s prison deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele could be forthcoming after a judge ruled such information is relevant to a deportation case.
‘Sufficient facts to warrant discovery’: Judge orders Trump admin to reveal its deal with El Salvador after immigrant objects to his jailing in notorious CECOT prison

Newsweek: Veteran’s daughter living in US 48 years locked up by ICE

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President Donald Trump‘s immigration enforcers have reportedly arrested the daughter of a U.S. veteran.

Alma Bowman, 58, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March during a scheduled check-in at its Atlanta field office, according to Atlanta News First. She has been living in the country since she was 10 years old.

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Her father, Lawrence Bowman, a U.S. Navy service member from Illinois, was stationed in the Philippines during the Vietnam War. Alma Bowman was born in the Philippines in 1966, and her family relocated to the United States a decade later. She has lived in Macon, Georgia, for almost 50 years.

Certain legal provisions allow for the extension of citizenship to family members of individuals who have served in the U.S. military.

Veteran’s daughter living in US 48 years locked up by ICE
Certain legal provisions allow for extending citizenship to family members of individuals who have served in the U.S. military.

https://www.newsweek.com/alma-bowman-veteran-daughter-detained-ice-immigration-2077893

Guardian: US police officer resigns after wrongfully arresting undocumented teen

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A Georgia police officer resigned from his job on Friday after erroneously pulling over a teenager, causing her to spend more than two weeks in a federal immigration jail, and leaving her facing deportation.

The officer, Leslie O’Neal, was employed at the police department in Dalton, a small city more than an hour north of Atlanta.

His arrest of college student Ximena Arias-Cristobal not only led to a domino effect that could lead to her deportation – it also engendered anger and criticism, especially given the circumstances of her immigration-related detention.

Though Dalton’s municipal government did not provide any information about why O’Neal resigned, his wife posted his resignation letter on Facebook, which said he believed the local police department did not adequately defend him.

Why should they defend him? He made a mistake that is turning that poor girl’s life upside down. If he can’t take the heat, he should get out of the fire, which apparently he’s done. 🙂

And I have no sympathy for cops who destroy other people lives with their “mistakes”. Screw them!

“The department’s silence in the face of widespread defamation has not only made my position personally untenable but has also created an environment where I can no longer effectively carry out my duties within the city of Dalton without fear of further backlash from the community,” O’Neal wrote in the letter.

But I’m curious: How did she get a Mexican driver’s license? I doubt she’s crossing the border for driver training, road test, etc. How would Mexico know she’s qualified to drive?

US police officer resigns after wrongfully arresting undocumented teen
Leslie O’Neal of Georgia pulled over college student who then spent more than two weeks in federal immigration jail

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/25/georgia-police-officer-resigns-arrest-undocumented-student

Raw Story: ‘Another loss in court for Trump’ as teenager released from immigration custody

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A Georgia teenager who was detained by federal deportation officers has been released from custody on Thursday, according to a CBS News report.

They claim Ximena Arias Cristobal was released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a judge granted her bond.

The 19-year-old was held at the ICE detention facility in Lumpkin, Georgia, after a traffic stop led to her arrest.

Her Immigration attorney, Dustin Baxter, said she was granted a $1,500 bond, which is the lowest amount allowed by law.

‘Another loss in court for Trump’ as teenager released from immigration custody

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-court-loss-teen-released

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: ‘We Are Not Ignoring the Law’: DHS Responds to Detainments

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A 19-year-old college student from Georgia remained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody following her arrest during a traffic stop. Ximena Arias-Cristobal was detained in Georgia when her dark truck was mistakenly identified as a vehicle linked to an illegal turn. Although all charges against her were dropped after a review of dash cam footage, her immigration status has remained in question. On May 21, she was granted a bond, allowing her release to her family. She reportedly still faces potential deportation to Mexico as ICE has initiated proceedings.

Despite the dismissal of charges, Arias-Cristobal remains in ICE custody, having lived in Whitfield County since she was four. City officials, including the city administrator and prosecuting attorney, have confirmed the error and informed Arias-Cristobal’s legal team.

‘We Are Not Ignoring the Law’: DHS Responds to Detainments
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/we-are-not-ignoring-the-law-dhs-responds-to-detainments/ss-AA1Fiya1