ICE Just Abducted an Immigration Reporter in Nashville

On Tuesday morning, immigration reporter Estefany Rodríguez was in her marked news car with her husband outside of a gym in Nashville when several vehicles surrounded them, before a bunch of men jumped out to detain her, without any warrant. The image is straight out of the autocracy playbook. 

When a journalist like Estefany Rodríguez is detained doing her job, the issue stops being about immigration and becomes about democracy itself. A confident nation does not fear reporters… it answers their questions. Silencing journalists weakens a country.

— Identity is a Homeland 🇸🇩🕊️ (@mhmds_yd98458) March 6, 2026

Rodríguez is a journalist for Nashville Noticias and Univision 42, and has been reporting on ICE operations in Nashville. (The day of her arrest, she posted a video interviewing family members of 14 people who were arrested in Wilson County.) She was born and raised in Colombia, where she attended college and graduated with a journalism degree, then began reporting on armed and militant groups throughout the country. After receiving threats due to her work, she obtained a tourist visa for the U.S. in 2021 and applied for political asylum thereafter. She joined Nashville Noticias in 2022. According to her attorneys, she was seeking a green card through her husband, who is a U.S. citizen, and had an appointment to meet with immigration officials later this month.

Speaking to the Nashville Banner, Joel Coxander, Rodríguez’s lawyer, said ICE sent her a letter on January 8 asking her to come to the department’s field office on January 26, in what he asserts was an “invitation.” “They don’t say they’re required…They cite no legal requirement to come. And that’s because, for a lot of people, they have no connection to ICE, this isn’t connected with an application with USCIS.” 

Rodríguez, her husband, and Coxander prepared to go to the appointment anyway, but Nashville was hit with a snowstorm, and ICE’s office was closed that day. So Rodríguez received a new date, February 25. On February 23, Rodríguez’s husband and one of Coxander’s employees visited the office to confirm the date, but the officer on duty said that she wasn’t in the system. Rodríguez was sent a new letter telling her to return on March 17.

ICE just grabbed NASHVILLE Noticias reporter Estefany Rodriguez outside of a gym.

“She was with her husband, a 🇺🇸 citizen — her attorney says she came legally, sponsored by her husband, has a pending green card application.”

She also has a daughter.

www.wsmv.com/2026/03/05/n…

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) March 5, 2026 at 10:50 PM

But Rodríguez, who has one daughter, was detained instead, and ICE is now labeling her a “full flight risk” for failing to show up on two occasions. As of Thursday evening, Rodríguez has reportedly been taken to Alabama and has not been in contact with Coxander since she left Nashville. An emergency petition has been filed in federal court to ask for her release.

“Estefany is a beloved community member and trusted journalist in the community,” Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition said in a statement Thursday. “It’s not lost on us that as a reporter, Estafany honestly and courageously told real stories about the harms caused by ICE and the people they targeted and detained.” 

In Nashville Noticias’ official statement of Rodríguez’s detainment, the publication says, “We trust in the justice system of the United States of America.” But unfortunately, this fascism-shaped system’s what got her there in the first place. 

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