LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A rally against current U.S. immigration policies brought hundreds to Bicentennial Plaza in Lawrenceville on Saturday.
Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco was at the protest in Gwinnett County, where the group holding the demonstration criticized the arrests made at a previous anti-deportation protest.
During the previous protest, in DeKalb County, local Hispanic journalist Mario Guevara, from El Salvador, was arrested.
He is now in custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and faces potential deportation.
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At the protest, drum beats and chants echoed through the plaza.
“We’ve taken to the street,” one protester said. “This isn’t just an immigrant issue, this is a working class issue. Every working class person should stand together.”
People in the crowd criticized U.S. immigration policy, calling for the Department of Homeland Security to release Guevara.
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“We are demanding Mario Guevara is released immediately, [and] all charges are dropped,” protesters told Channel 2 Action News.
Body camera footage obtained by Channel 2 Action News showed officers arresting Guevara at the protest in DeKalb County on June 14.
Officers said Guevara disobeyed orders to stay on the sidewalk.
Video of the exchange between Guevara and police shows him telling them he was “a member of the media,” and an officer responding that he was “warned multiple times not to get on the road.”
“Just reporting, just reporting,” Guevara responded on video.
Officers charged the prominent Hispanic journalist with obstruction, being a pedestrian in a roadway and unlawful assembly.
“We see how this is an attempt to stop people from using their first amendment rights to righteously speak out against these attacks on immigrants,” a protest organizer said.
On Friday, Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson reported that Guevara had new charges filed against him by the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office, arguing that he’d recorded video of an undercover deputy in May.
Guevara now faces deportation back to El Salvador.
Ahead of the protest, organizers worked with police to get a march around the block approved.
Currently, Guevara is being held at an immigration center in Folkston, a city in the southeastern part of Georgia near the Florida line.
Protest organizers said more than 24 people spent days in jail following the anti-deportation rally in Tucker last Saturday.
DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said she was reviewing the police response to the demonstrations but will not comment further until the review is complete.
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