Press freedom groups on Friday were calling for the immediate release of Estefany Rodríguez, a journalist with Nashville Noticias and Univision 42 Nashville, after she was detained by federal immigration agents while traveling in her marked press vehicle.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation said it was not yet clear whether Rodríguez was detained “in retaliation for her reporting” on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) mass detention and deportation operation under President Donald Trump.
“But we certainly wouldn’t be surprised,” said the group in a statement on social media. “ICE abductions of noncitizen journalists take the reporters best equipped to cover immigration enforcement off the beat.”
Rodríguez was with her husband, a US citizen, on Wednesday when she was arrested outside a gym. She was in a car marked with the Nashville Noticias logo when several other vehicles surrounded her, the outlet said in a statement Friday.
“Several men got out and demanded that our colleague be taken into custody for reasons that the legal team will specify at a later date,” said Nashville Noticias. “Estefany Rodríguez was taken to a detention center.”
Pablo Manríquez of Migrant Insider reported Friday that Rodríguez had been taken to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, “a facility infamous for solitary confinement and sexual abuse by guards against detainees.”
Nashville Banner reported that Rodríguez arrived in the US in 2021 on a tourist visa and then applied for political asylum. Her lawyer, Joel Coxander, told the outlet that Rodríguez had reported on armed groups in her native Colombia and had received threats for doing so, leading her to file at least one police report before coming to the US. After getting married, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) reported, Rodríguez “filed for permission to adjust her status to that of a lawful permanent resident.”
She had never had an interaction with ICE until January 8, Nashville Banner reported, when she received a G-56 “call-in” letter asking her to come in to a local ICE office for “processing and additional information” on January 26.
Coxander told Nashville Banner that the letter advised Rodríguez to come to a meeting to “help ensure the best outcome for your case.” She was also told she would receive a Notice to Appear (NTA) at the meeting, an official document initiating an immigration court case.
The local office was closed on January 26 due to inclement weather, and a makeup appointment was scheduled for February 25.
Media and an associate of Coxander’s went to the ICE office two days before the rescheduled appointment to confirm whether Rodríguez had to go to the meeting and ask if the NTA could simply be sent to her attorneys. They were told no appointment was in the system for Rodríguez and a third appointment was scheduled for March 17.
Nine days later, Rodríguez was arrested, with ICE agents presenting the NTA rather than a warrant after they surrounded her car.
An ICE officer at the local office told Coxander’s associate after Rodríguez was detained that she had been arrested because she was considered a “flight risk” because she had “missed” two meetings.
“She’s being told, ‘We’re holding it against you that you didn’t do this thing we told you you didn’t have to do,” Coxander told Nashville Banner*.* “They’re saying, ‘Hey, you didn’t show up to this invitation letter, so you’re a full flight risk.’”
Rodríguez has covered ICE’s operations in Nashville. CJR reported that on Tuesday, the day before she was arrested, Rodríguez “reported from the parking lot of a residential complex where three ICE agents detained a man believed to be of Venezuelan origin.”
Her arrest comes weeks after federal agents arrested journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, accusing the two US citizens of conspiring with organizers to disrupt a church service at a protest they were covering. Last June, an Emmy-winning reporter named Mario Guevara was arrested and held for more than 100 days before being deported. His deportation “is believed to be the first case of a journalist being removed from the US in retaliation for their work,” wrote CJR’s Carolina Abbott Galvão.
The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition said Rodríguez is a “beloved community member and trusted journalist in the community.”
“It’s not lost on us that as a reporter, Estefany honestly and courageously told real stories about the harms caused by ICE and the people they targeted and detained,” said the group.
Media Action Plan, a Canada-based press freedom group, said Rodríguez’s arrest “is another attack on the free press.”
Rodríguez’s husband set up a GoFundMe for the family, which also includes a young daughter. The fundraiser had raised nearly $9,000 as of Friday afternoon.
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