Judge orders ICE to explain why it  arrested Nashville journalist

A federal judge has given Immigration and Customs Enforcement a deadline of noon Monday to file a written justification for the arrest and continued detention of a Nashville journalist.

Estefany María Rodríguez Florez, whose job with the Spanish-language outlet Nashville Noticias has included critical reporting of ICE activities, was detained Wednesday by ICE agents as she rode in a vehicle marked with the media outlet’s logo. Rodríguez had reported on ICE arrests in Nashville as recently as the day before her own arrest.

Her attorneys wrote in court filings Friday that Rodríguez’ arrest, denial of bond and swift transfer to a Louisiana detention center “indicated retaliation against Rodríguez in violation of the First Amendment due to her work as a journalist, including reporting on ICE.”

Rodríguez, 35, is accused of illegally overstaying a visa, a claim her attorneys deny.

Her arrest has received widespread attention. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists condemned the arrest as “dangerous precedent for journalists covering immigration.” On Friday, the Tennessee Democratic Party issued a statement saying Rodríguez’s detention “raised serious concerns.”

Nashville Noticias, in its statement, expressed hope the “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 to continue her legal process within the framework permitted by law.”

Rodríguez entered the United States from her native Colombia on a tourist visa five years ago.

Before the visa expired, she filed a claim for political asylum. She had been subject to death threats for her reporting in Colombia, her attorneys wrote. Asylum seekers must be in the U.S. to apply.

Rodríguez subsequently married a U.S. citizen and filed a petition to adjust her status to lawful permanent resident. She has a work permit valid through 2029, government documents filed in court show.

In January she received unexpected notice from ICE to appear for a meeting. The meeting date coincided with an ice storm in Nashville that shut down much of the city. Ahead of her next appointment, reset for Feb. 26, Rodríguez’ husband and attorney visited ICE offices to try and learn more about the purpose of the meeting. ICE officials could find no record the Feb. 26 meeting had been set, and scheduled another meeting for March 17, attorneys wrote. ICE officials now say Rodriguez is a flight risk for missing two appointments.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security records filed in court show that, on the day of her arrest, Rodríguez was the subject of a targeted early morning surveillance and enforcement operation.

Rodríguez’ attorneys said that the stop was made without a warrant, a claim federal attorneys countered in legal filings on Friday.

In the filings, government attorneys attached an image of an administrative warrant for Rodríguez dated March 2, two days before her arrest.

The document appears wrinkly and photographed, rather than flat and scanned, and its “certificate of service” section listing the name and location of the person served by the warrant is blank, Rodríguez’ attorneys noted.

Federal officials “do assert the unserved, unexecuted and evidently crumpled-into-a-ball warrant makes a difference,” attorneys Michael Holley, Julio Colby and Joel Coxander wrote. The attorneys argued that it did not.

Rodríguez, they said, was not served with the warrant from the time ICE agents observed her at her home until she was taken to a Nashville “hold room.”

The attorneys, with Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition and MIRA Legal, are seeking Rodríguez’ immediate release. They are also asking the court to “expressly declare her arrest was unconstitutional.” A court hearing could take place as early as Tuesday, the deadline United States District Judge Eli Richardson set for Rodríguez’s attorneys to respond to the government’s filing.