A Nashville-based Colombian reporter who covers immigration was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after posting a $10,000 bond, ending more than two weeks in detention that prompted criticism from press freedom advocates.
Estefany Rodríguez, a Spanish-language reporter for Nashville Noticias, was freed from a Louisiana detention facility and is returning to Tennessee to be with her family, said Mike Holley, an attorney with Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights who represents Rodríguez. Holley said legal teams are seeking an order to prevent ICE from “mistreating her in a similar way in the future.”
Rodríguez was detained in Nashville earlier this month by ICE agents. Her lawyers have filed two separate legal actions — one challenging the circumstances of her detention and another addressing her immigration status — and contend her arrest followed reporting critical of ICE practices.
A petition filed by her attorneys states Rodríguez had been covering immigration arrests and had previously reported pieces critical of the agency.
Rodríguez, who fled Colombia in 2021 after receiving death threats connected to her journalism, entered the United States on a tourist visa and applied for political asylum before the visa expired. At the time of her detention, she had a pending green card application and a work permit issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
ICE said Rodríguez “currently has no lawful immigration status” and alleged she failed to depart the country in violation of her visa. The agency also said she missed two immigration appointments, which ICE identified as reasons for detention.
Rodríguez’s immigration counsel countered those claims, noting that a severe winter storm in Nashville made travel hazardous and forced the ICE office to close, and that on the day of her second appointment, officers were unable to find the appointment in their system. Rodríguez was scheduled for a check-in on March 17 but was already in custody by that date, her petition says.
Court filings describe difficult conditions during Rodríguez’s confinement. She was held for nearly a week and a half in Etowah County Jail in Alabama, where a filing alleges jailers refused to arrange an attorney-client call and that Rodríguez spent five days in isolation.
Press freedom groups criticized the detention and the amount of the bond. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called the $10,000 bond “unusually high,” noting Rodríguez’s U.S.-based husband and 7-year-old daughter and arguing she is not a flight risk.
José Zamora, CPJ’s regional director for the Americas, warned that the arrest has chilled local reporting on immigration and urged authorities to protect journalists’ ability to work without reprisal.
CNN and other outlets have sought comment from ICE.
The release comes amid broader scrutiny of the administration’s immigration enforcement, which has included detentions of other journalists who previously fled threats in their home countries.
