{"id":534469,"date":"2026-03-20T09:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/534469\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T09:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:09:13","slug":"nashville-immigration-reporter-estefany-rodriguez-released-from-ice-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/534469\/","title":{"rendered":"Nashville immigration reporter Estefany Rodr\u00edguez released from ICE custody"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A Nashville-based Colombian reporter was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> custody on bond Thursday after her arrest earlier this month.\n <\/p>\n

\n Estefany Rodr\u00edguez, a Spanish-language reporter for Nashville Noticias who often covers immigration, was released from a Louisiana detention facility after posting a $10,000 bond. Her release comes just over two weeks after she was detained by ICE agents in Nashville.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cToday we celebrate that Estefany has been released from the ICE detention center in Louisiana and is on her way home to be with her family,\u201d Mike Holley, a Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights attorney representing Estefany, said in a statement<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s attorneys are seeking an order barring ICE from \u201cmistreating her in a similar way in the future,\u201d Holley said. (Rodr\u00edguez has two cases, one over her detention and one over her immigration status.)\n <\/p>\n

\n A petition filed by her lawyers said Rodr\u00edguez has reported stories that are often \u201ccritical of the practices\u201d by ICE and was reporting on immigration arrests the day prior to her detention.\n <\/p>\n

\n Rodr\u00edguez fled Colombia in 2021 after receiving death threats related to her work as a journalist. She entered the United States legally on a tourist visa and applied for political asylum before the visa expired.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the time of her detention, Rodr\u00edguez had a pending green card application and a work permit issued by US Citizenship and Immigration Services.\n <\/p>\n

\n Following her detention, ICE claimed Rodr\u00edguez \u201ccurrently has no lawful immigration status.\u201d The federal agency also alleged that she \u201cfailed to depart the country and is in violation of the conditions of her visa.\u201d ICE agents claimed Rodr\u00edguez was detained because she failed to appear at two immigration appointments.\n <\/p>\n

\n Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s immigration lawyer pushed back<\/a> on those allegations, pointing to a winter storm in Nashville that made travel hazardous and closed the ICE office. On the day of her second appointment, officers were unable to locate the appointment in the system, according to her legal petition. Rodr\u00edguez was slated for a check-in at the ICE office on March 17 but was in custody by that date.\n <\/p>\n

\n For almost a week and a half, Rodr\u00edguez was held in Alabama\u2019s Etowah County Jail, where \u201cjailers refused to set up an attorney-client call,\u201d a court filing alleges. Rodr\u00edguez was kept in isolation for five days, the filing states.\n <\/p>\n

\n Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s $10,000 bond is \u201cunusually high<\/a>,\u201d according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, especially considering her husband and 7-year-old daughter live in the United States and she is not considered a flight risk.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s release but warned of the danger posed to journalists across the country.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHer detention has had a chilling effect, undermining journalists\u2019 ability, especially local reporters, to cover their communities without fear of retaliation,\u201d Jos\u00e9 Zamora, CPJ\u2019s regional director for the Americas, said in a statement. \u201cThe government must uphold press freedom and ensure all journalists can work safely and without reprisal.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN has reached out to ICE for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n The administration has detained other journalists during a nationwide immigration crackdown as well. In October, independent journalist Mario Guevara<\/a> was deported to his native El Salvador after months in federal custody.\n <\/p>\n

\n Like Rodr\u00edguez, Guevara had fled his home country after receiving death threats<\/a> over his reporting there and, like Rodr\u00edguez, had reported on US immigration prior to his arrest.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Nashville-based Colombian reporter was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on bond Thursday after her arrest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-534469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}