On June 14, near Atlanta, Mario Guevara covered live on social media the "No Kings" protests, the largest popular mobilization since Donald Trump's return to the White House.

A Salvadoran journalist who has lived in the United States for two decades was deported Friday after being arrested while covering anti-Trump protests in mid-June, a US press rights group announced.

"This morning, journalist Mario Guevara was deported from the United States to his native El Salvador," the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement, saying it was "the first time it has documented this type of reprisal related to journalistic activity."

"We are pleased to announce that Mario Guevara is back home in El Salvador," Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), confirmed to AFP. She added: "If you come to our country and break our laws, we will arrest you and you will NEVER return."

Emmy Award Winner in 2023

A journalist specializing in immigration issues, for which he earned an Emmy Award in 2023, Mario Guevara arrived in the United States on a temporary visa in 2004. He remained in the country and subsequently attempted to regularize his situation, without having succeeded at the time of his arrest, according to court documents.

CPJ representative Katherine Jacobsen, however, said that "this is not simply about his immigration status" but "retaliation for his reporting." She called it "a worrying sign of the deterioration of press freedom under the Trump administration."

On June 14, near Atlanta, Georgia, Mario Guevara was covering the "No Kings" protests live in Spanish on social media, the largest popular mobilization since Donald Trump's return to the White House, when he was arrested. According to images broadcast live on his Facebook channel, the journalist was wearing a bulletproof vest with the "press" logo and a protective helmet.

He was initially prosecuted for minor offenses related to his work (illegal assembly, obstruction, presence of a pedestrian on the roadway, etc.). The charges were later dropped, according to court documents.