Nashville journalist Estefany Rodriguez Florez has been released from a Louisiana ICE detention center after more than two weeks in custody.
An immigration judge granted Rodriguez bail on a $10,000 bond Monday, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement delayed her release when it declined to waive its right to appeal.
ICE officers arrested Rodriguez on March 2, after officials say she missed a meeting at its Nashville field office. Her husband, Alejandro Medina, wrote in an affidavit that they were given a different date and had not intentionally missed any meetings. He also wrote that his wife contracted lice while in custody and was sprayed with a chemical disinfectant while being transported from an Alabama detention center to one in Louisiana.
Nashville Noticias In this broadcast still image, Estefany Rodriguez Florez reports for Nashville Noticias.
Attorneys for Rodriguez are suing ICE in federal court, alleging that officers did not have a warrant when they arrested her. ICE officials have denied that argument, although evidence of one presented to the court was partially blank and did not include Rodriguez’s alien number. A federal judge heard preliminary arguments on the case Tuesday.
Rodriguez reports on immigration for the local Spanish-language outlet Nashville Noticias. She initially came to the U.S. on a travel visa and applied for asylum because she received death threats for her reporting in Colombia. Her work visa is valid through 2029, and her green card application is pending following her marriage to Medina, who is a U.S. citizen.
Her attorneys have alleged that ICE is retaliating against Rodriguez for her reporting on immigration enforcement. In court documents, U.S. Attorney Braden H. Boucek argued that there isn’t precedent for First Amendment rights applying to undocumented immigrants.
“We are grateful that Estefany is able to walk away with her freedom to be with her family as she continues to fight for her right to remain in her community and in the U.S.,” her attorney, Mike Holley, said in a release from the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.
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