Journo arrested during ICE protests deported to El Salvador homeland

A journalist arrested during the “No Kings” protests says it’s a “blessing” to be back in his “homeland” of El Salvador following deportation.

Mario Guevara was arrested while livestreaming the gathering and charged with “unlawful assembly, obstruction and being a pedestrian on a roadway,” according to The Hill. He was released on bond by a local judge, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had already lodged a detainer on him. He had been in the United States for over 20 years and even founded MG News, after entering the country legally and applying for asylum, claiming he felt endangered in El Salvador due to his journalist work.

But he’s singing a different tune following his deportation.

“I feel sad, but I also feel happy to be in my homeland. I mean, they didn’t execute me. Perhaps the racist government wanted to execute me,” Guevara said, according to CNN. “And I’m here in my homeland. So, at the end of the day, I think it’s a blessing.”

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) spoke out against his deportation, saying it is the first time the organization “has documented this type of retaliation related to reporting activity.”

BREAKING Journalist Mario Guevara has officially been deported Friday from the United States back to his native El Salvador. This is a shameful erosion of press freedom in the U.S. — the first time that CPJ has documented this type of retaliation related to reporting.… pic.twitter.com/oaA8fdIlIG

— Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom) October 3, 2025

“Mario Guevara was here legally in the country, yet similarly he was targeted for removal because the government disliked him exercising his First Amendment rights,” said The Free Press senior counsel Nora Benavidez. “It’s devastating to see this administration abandon the core press freedom principles the United States was founded on.”

But Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin had very little sympathy. In a statement to The Hill, she said she was “happy to report Mario Guevara is back home in El Salvador.”

“If you come to our country and break our laws, we will arrest you and you will NEVER return.”

X users had a lot to say:

I guess he over stayed his visa?

— Kathleen Houston (@Kathlee10615691) October 4, 2025

Wow, who knew that Freedom of the Press gave them Freedom to Disregard the Law privileges too?

— McFortner (@mc_fortner) October 3, 2025

Or, and maybe consider… He had a legal deportation order, was given due process that is constitutionally prescribed… and he was sent away…
–
I don’t care if he was baking a cake for orphans..-He was in violation of US immigration laws. It’s not hard.@KurtSchlichter

— FocusTrumpFocus (@FocusTrumpfocus) October 3, 2025

I mean… foreign “journalist” in a country illegally… that’s usually called “spy”…

— Jeebus Christos (@travelinjeebus) September 24, 2025

He’s had 21 years to become LEGAL? He deserves being deported just for being lazy and stupid!

— Tuy Hoa 67-68 (@ACU1979) September 25, 2025

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