A Nashville journalist detained by ICE will remain in custody despite an immigration judge granting her bond on Monday morning. Immigration officials delayed the release of Spanish-language journalist Estefany Rodriguez Florez.
While being held at a Louisiana detention center, lawyers for Rodriguez say their client has contracted lice and been kept in isolation from other detainees. Immigration attorney Joel Coxander said he finally got a chance to speak with her this weekend after 10 days of silence.
“That’s a very difficult situation when you’re trying to defend her rights as a journalist,” Coxander said.
In court documents, ICE officials have said they arrested Rodriguez because she failed to appear for meetings at a Nashville field office. Rodriguez’s husband, Alejandro Medina, said they couldn’t make it to a late January hearing because of theice storm. When they met with ICE officials, Medina said they were told they didn’t have an appointment in the system and were re-scheduled for March 17. His wife was arrested on March 2, before that appointment.
“Our families belong together, and this broken immigration system has deeply harmed thousands upon thousands of families across the county,” Medina said. “I hope and I pray our families are back together soon.”
Court documents show that Rodriguez’s work permit is valid through 2029. She recently applied for a green card through her marriage to Medina, who is a U.S. citizen. Her attorneys allege that ICE did not produce a warrant when they arrested Rodriguez, who is claiming political asylum in the U.S. because she received death threats for reporting in Colombia.
“Estefany came to the U.S. and applied for asylum as a journalist who was targeted and threatened in her home country of Colombia, knowing that the U.S. guarantees freedom of speech for journalists,” Medina said.
ICE has maintained that they obtained a warrant before arresting Rodriguez. A federal judge in Nashville will hear arguments about the arrest on Tuesday afternoon.
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