Spanish-language reporter Estefany Rodríguez was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 4, 2026 — one day after reporting on ICE arrests in the area.
Rodríguez has worked for the Hispanic news outlet Nashville Noticias since 2022 and began regularly covering immigration arrests for the outlet in November 2025, federal court records show.
On the morning of March 4, immigration agents followed Rodríguez and her husband as they drove to the gym in her work car, which bore the Nashville Noticias logo, the station reported. When they parked, several men surrounded the car and demanded Rodríguez be taken into custody.
During the encounter, Rodríguez noted that one ICE agent had a photograph of her work car on his cellphone, her attorney wrote in a court filing.
After her arrest, Rodríguez filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, ICE and other federal officials, arguing that her detention violated her constitutional rights. Her attorney, Joel Coxander, wrote that she was illegally detained, without a warrant or due process, and in retaliation for her reporting on ICE operations.
Coxander filed an emergency petition in federal court seeking a writ of habeas corpus, asking a judge to review whether her detention was lawful and to order her immediate release. According to court documents, Rodriguez was most recently being held in Alabama.
The federal government disputed Rodríguez’s claims in court filings, asserting she was arrested under a valid warrant issued two days earlier and that her visa had expired in September 2021, leaving her in the country without legal status.
Rodríguez had entered the United States legally in 2021 on a tourist visa, but later applied for political asylum, fearing persecution for her reporting on armed militia groups if she returned to her native Colombia. While her asylum case was pending, she received a work permit in 2022 and applied for a green card after marrying a U.S. citizen in January 2026.
That same month, ICE asked her to appear at its field office, but the appointment was canceled and later rescheduled due to a winter storm. In February, agents said they could not find a record of her appointment and issued a new reporting date for March 17, according to court records.
Rodríguez’s case comes amid broader concerns about journalists covering immigration enforcement. In a separate case, Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara was deported in October after being arrested four months earlier while covering a “No Kings” protest in Atlanta, Georgia.
After Rodríguez was arrested, a coalition of 41 press freedom groups called for her immediate release.
“Rodriguez’s detention is part of a broader erosion of democratic norms and human rights in the United States in which immigration authorities are increasingly being used to chill free expression and First Amendment rights,” the coalition wrote in a statement.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists said it “denounces immigration tactics that detain journalists and any efforts to interfere with news coverage of immigration enforcement.”
In a statement, Nashville Noticias wrote it respects the laws of the U.S. and “hopes that this situation will be resolved favorably for our colleague so that she can be released soon, as she needs to reunite with her young daughter and husband.”
District Judge Eli Richardson will decide whether to grant Rodriguez’s emergency request for release. He has ordered the government to file a response justifying her arrest and detention. A hearing is set for March 17.
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.