ICE arrested Nashville journalist without warrant, attorneys say

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

March 6, 2026, 9:22 a.m. ET


Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents arrested a journalist working for local news outlet Nashville Noticias without an arrest warrant during a March 4 traffic stop in South Nashville, according to an emergency petition filed by her attorneys in federal court.

The journalist, Estefany Maria Rodriguez Flores, was taken to an ICE detention center and remains in custody as of 3 p.m. March 5, according to a statement from Nashville Noticias posted to social media.

Rodriguez had a meeting scheduled for March 17 with ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations. She frequently reported on stories critical of ICE for Nashville Noticias, the Spanish-language outlet.

Nashville Noticias said in its statement on social media that it "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 with the framework permitted by law." "We trust in the justice system of the United States of America," Nashville Noticias said in the statement.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/03/06/ice-arrested-nashville-journalist-attorneys-say/89016211007/

[Bayard]

1. I can't get to the article

Is she actually here illegally?

[BumRushDaShow]

2. The link works for me

She is here legally with a work permit Some more of the article -

Rodriguez entered the country legally in March 2021 under a tourist visa. She has a valid work permit, is married to a U.S. citizen, and has green card and asylum applications pending, according to the petition filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. She "has followed ICE’s express directions at all times," the petition states. It adds that Rodriguez received a letter in January asking her to come to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operation's field office in Nashville on Jan. 26. The office closed that day because of Winter Storm Fern, which covered Nashville in ice.

Basically what happened was they kept changing the hearing date and then claimed she wasn't in the system, but then handed her lawyer a paper with a new date... and then almost 2 weeks before the new date, they snagged her in a traffic stop.