Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara counts in an interview with the EFE agency that spends 22 hours a day in an immigration punishment cell allegedly for their safety and fears that although the United States laws give them the reason they will invent new positions because ICE told him that he wants to let him go.
The 47 -year -old Hispanic, who arrived in the United States fleeing violence in his country and has a work permit, is considered by journalistic organizations as the only communicator detained in the country for exercising his work.
Guevara now lives in his own flesh the “nightmare” he told in the stories he collected daily as ‘hunter of raids’: the reality of thousands of undocumented people with no criminal record that were separated from their families when they fell into the hands of immigration and that remained detained for weeks or even months before being deported.
Although he has been detained for more than a month and has passed through five different prisons, Guevara said in the interview via telephone that he remains optimistic and that his lawyers are fighting the battle to free him and finally to continue his life along with his family in Atlanta, where he arrived more than two decades ago.
Before his arrest on June 14, while he covered a protest against President Donald Trump and his migratory policies, the Salvadoran communicator dedicated most of his days to document the operations that the agents of the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE, in English) carried out in Georgia, regardless of whether it was early or late at night.
Today he spends his days locked in a small cell of punishment “in the Folkston processing center, in the southeast of Georgia – almost bordering Florida – where Ice keeps him held despite the fact that the authorities of Dekalb, the county where he was arrested, dismissed him all the charges that imputed him, among them those of obstruction to an agent of the public order and illicit meeting.
Praying daily
The founder of the Mgnews digital channel, who has hundreds of thousands of followers on social networks, says he spends 22 hours a day between the walls of the small cell where he was confined for his own security, for being a “public figure” and not for punishment, according to ICE.
In spite of this, there he has his bath, he receives good treatment and food “varied” prepared by Hispanos, Guevara acknowledges, who, as a man of faith, assures that he dedicates most of his time to read the Bible and pray, but also to draw – something he liked to do since childhood – and talk to his family and acquaintances from a phone that they provide in the prison.
Sometimes, in moments of despair, he admits that he explodes in tears and reflects a lot about how he came to an immigration prison for doing his job as a journalist and how this has affected his family.
“You gave us many headaches,” says ICE agents who recognized him and that even follow him on social networks.
For Guevara, his imprisonment is nothing more than a retaliation for doing his job, since he has not committed any crime, and also has a valid permission to work in this country, although he still does not have the permanent residence, which he hopes to obtain because one of his children is an American citizen.
The “goal” is to deport him
For now, the Salvadoran must wait (at least at least July 31) so that the Immigration Appeals Board decides on its case after a government prosecutor appeals the decision of an immigration judge to grant bail.
“But Ice told me they don’t want to let go. They are going to find a way to retain me, even if the Board decides that the bond proceeds. They are going to invent something else, charges in another county, ”said Guevara, who was a photojournalist in the graphic press, in El Salvador, and a reporter in the Hispanic World newspaper, in Atlanta, before founding his own medium.
According to the communicator, when he was transported to prisons, immigration agents intimidated him: one told him that the more he fights the case, the longer he would spend locked up, and another made it clear that the government’s goal is to deport him.
“It is a mental game that they do saying things of this type to scare me, but as I know their tactics, I get strong,” said Guevara, whose lawyers are preparing to file a lawsuit if necessary.
The National Security Department has argued that the journalist is in the process of deportation because »entered the country illegally in 2004 ″.
