By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – A reporter working for local news outlet Nashville Noticias was arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Nashville without a warrant, an emergency petition filed by her attorneys in federal court said.
Nashville Noticias said on Thursday the journalist, Estefany Maria Rodriguez Flores, was taken to an ICE detention center and remained in custody. ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
Rodriguez Flores is from Colombia, has lived in the U.S. for five years, and “frequently reports on stories critical of ICE,” her lawyers said in a court filing in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The media outlet said the reporter was with her husband outside a gym on Wednesday when the vehicle they were in, which was marked with the Nashville Noticias logo, was surrounded and she was detained.
U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson directed federal immigration officials to give their preliminary response to the emergency petition by Friday. Rodriguez Flores had a meeting scheduled for March 17 with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, her lawyers said.
ICE has been at the heart of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown that rights advocates say violates free speech and due process rights.
Human rights groups say it has made the environment unsafe for citizens and immigrants, especially after two separate January fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minnesota.
Around the country, at least eight people have died in ICE detention centers since the start of 2026, following at least 31 deaths last year.
Trump has said his policies aim to curb illegal immigration and improve domestic security.
Rodriguez Flores arrived in the U.S. on a tourist visa, filed for political asylum, subsequently married a U.S. citizen and has a valid work permit, the filing said. She and her husband have filed for permission to adjust her status to lawful permanent resident, it added.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
