Tennessee Spanish-Language Journalist Freed on Bond After ICE Detention

A Colombian reporter for Nashville Noticias was freed Thursday after spending over two weeks in immigration custody following a March traffic stop arrest. Her legal team argues she was targeted for her critical coverage of ICE operations and plans to continue fighting the wrongful detention case.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A journalist working for a Spanish-language media company in Tennessee walked free Thursday after posting bond, ending more than two weeks in federal immigration custody that her legal team claims was unjustified.

Estefany Rodríguez Flórez, who works for Nashville Noticias and has published reports criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, was taken into ICE custody following a March 4 traffic stop. Authorities initially held her at an Etowah County, Alabama facility before transferring her to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana.

“We are grateful that Estefany is able to walk away with her freedom to be with her family as she continues to fight for her right to remain in her community and in the US,” her lawyer Mike Holley stated.

Court documents show that Rodríguez, a Colombian national, arrived in the United States through legal channels five years ago. She possesses authorized work documentation and has filed applications for both political asylum and permanent residency through her American citizen spouse. Her legal representatives emphasize she has no criminal background, maintains steady employment, has community connections, and cares for a 7-year-old child.

With assistance from the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, Rodríguez’s legal team filed a wrongful detention lawsuit claiming she was singled out due to her journalism criticizing ICE policies during the Trump presidency. They assert violations of her First Amendment protections and Fifth Amendment due process guarantees.

Federal officials countered that no constitutional violations occurred in what they described as the agency’s discretionary choice to initiate deportation procedures, arguing First Amendment protections “may not even be applicable to an illegal alien.”

An immigration judge in Louisiana approved a $10,000 bond for her release on Monday.

Holley indicated they will proceed with the wrongful detention lawsuit, seeking not only her complete freedom “but an order prohibiting ICE from mistreating her in a similar way in the future.”

Rodríguez submitted her asylum request prior to her visa’s September 2021 expiration date and remained in America due to persecution threats in Colombia and because departing would terminate her asylum petition, according to her attorneys. She received work authorization while awaiting her asylum interview in February 2022.

Her legal team contends the arrest constituted an illegal, warrant-free seizure violating Fourth Amendment protections because officials lacked reasonable belief she would flee before obtaining proper documentation. While government lawyers claim they possessed an arrest warrant, Rodríguez’s attorneys questioned its legitimacy. The document was dated two days prior to the arrest, handwritten, wrinkled, missing her identification number, and had an incomplete service certificate section. A second, typed warrant was created and dated March 4.

According to court filings, ICE had previously postponed two scheduled meetings with Rodríguez regarding her case – first due to office closure during severe winter weather, then because an agent could not locate her appointment in their system.

Officials had rescheduled a new meeting for March 17.

Nashville Noticias reported that Rodríguez was traveling with her spouse in a clearly marked company vehicle when multiple cars surrounded them and she was transported to a detention facility.

Attorney Joel Coxander revealed it took more than 10 days before Rodríguez was permitted to communicate with legal counsel.

Multiple journalism organizations filed their own legal document highlighting potential dangers of detaining non-citizen reporters.

“The predictable consequence of the arrest and detention of these individuals is to end that speech and to chill a vast amount of future speech, especially by non-citizen journalists fearful that hard-hitting reporting on sensitive topics could lead to their detention,” stated the brief led by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Following her arrest, authorities transferred Rodríguez to the Etowah County facility in Alabama. After one day there, as she was preparing for transport to Louisiana, an officer inquired about lice and returned her to the jail. She spent approximately five days in solitary confinement before being forced to undress in a shower area where an officer applied a chemical solution to her head that caused eye irritation, the legal filing states.

She was subsequently moved to Louisiana on March 12.