Nashville journalist arrested by ICE released after 15 days in detention | US immigration
A Nashville journalist who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this month was released from a Louisiana detention center on Thursday after 15 days in custody.
Estefany Rodríguez, who covers immigration and other issues for the outlet Nashville Noticias, was taken into custody in Nashville on March 4 and spent a week in a county jail in Alabama before being transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana. His lawyers said Rodriguez was detained without a warrant.
The 35-year-old journalist was born in Colombia and came to the United States five years ago with a valid work permit. He applied for asylum in the United States because he was escaping threats regarding his job in his home country. She also applied for a green card after marrying a US citizen.
The government denied he was detained without a warrant, and DHS officials have previously said he was detained because his tourist visa expired in 2021.
While in custody, guards kept him in isolation for five days because they believed he had lice. Authorities stripped him naked and poured a cleaning fluid, which Rodríguez believed was floor cleaner, over his head, causing burning in his eyes, according to court documents.
He was not allowed to contact his lawyers while in custody in Alabama and was only able to contact his legal team after being detained for 10 days, his lawyers said.
“Today, we celebrate Estefany’s release from the ICE detention center in Louisiana and her departure home to be with her family,” Mike Holley, an attorney with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition who represented Rodríguez’s habeas case in federal court, said in a statement.
“We are grateful that Estefany was able to regain the freedom to be with her family as she continues to fight for her right to remain in her community and in the United States.”
Rodríguez was released after the judge granted him $10,000 bail.
Rodríguez’s detention caused alarm among press freedom and immigration advocates. In court documents, his lawyers noted that the agency pursued ICE, including workplace raids and mass arrests, and claimed he was targeted because of his job.
The day before he was taken into custody, he had reported his immigration arrest in traffic court after agents surrounded his car, which bore the Nashville Noticias logo.
In January, former CNN host Don Lemon and freelance Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort were arrested by federal agents after covering an anti-ICE protest at a church in Minnesota.
various international organizations, especially Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had called for his release.
“We were encouraged to see Estefany Rodríguez ordered released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at her bail hearing, but we are concerned that her bail is unusually high,” Katherine Jacobsen, CPJ’s program coordinator for the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, said in a statement earlier this week.
