06/03/2026
Nashville Noticias Reporter, Estefany Rodríguez, has been taken into ICE custody. If you're not familiar, Nashville Noticias does Spanish language social media broadcasts.
According to the news organization, Rodríguez was with her husband when the vehicle they were traveling in, marked with the Nashville Noticias logo, was surrounded by several other vehicles. "Several men got out and demanded that our colleague be taken into custody for reasons that the legal team will specify at a later date," the outlet says in a release.
Rodríguez was taken to a detention center. She holds a degree in journalism from Colombia, her native country, where she has worked for several years at various news outlets. She joined the
Nashville Noticias team in 2022, covering social, family, health, police, and immigration issues.
According to the Nashville Scene, "Rodríguez, who was in her car with her husband — a U.S. citizen — has been following all the legal steps to citizenship. In her job, Rodríguez has reported several stories holding ICE accountable, and it’s unclear whether her detention was retaliation. As of Thursday afternoon, she was in Alabama en route to an ICE processing center in Louisiana.
A citizen of Colombia, Rodríguez originally entered the country lawfully on a tourist visa in March 2021, then applied for political asylum. According to Joel Coxander, her immigration attorney, Rodríguez was forced to flee Colombia and seek asylum because of her work as a journalist. She covered armed and militant groups and had received threats, which Coxander has seen in the form of a text message. She also filed at least one police report before coming to the U.S. For the journalists’ safety, Coxander said, a lot of the publication’s articles have been scrubbed from existence."
"Nashville Noticias LLC expresses its respect for the laws of the United States 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 to continue her legal process within the framework permitted by law. Her legal team at MIRA Legal, as well as the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Coalition (TIRRC), are providing legal representation in the case and will have details on the progress and responses from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the
Tennessee Federal Court," according to a release from Nashville Noticias.