by Mikeie Honda Reiland, Nashville Banner
March 19, 2026
Listen to reporter Mikeie Honda Reiland discuss the case
After more than two weeks in ICE custody, Nashville Noticias journalist Estefany Rodríguez walked out of a Louisiana detention center Thursday afternoon, free on bond.
“Today we celebrate that Estefany has been released from the ICE detention center in Louisiana and is on her way home to be with her family,” Mike Holley, an attorney with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition representing Rodríguez’s habeas case in federal court, said in a statement. “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.”
Originally detained in South Nashville early on March 4, Rodríguez spent more than a week in a county jail in Alabama before arriving at the South Louisiana ICE processing center on March 12. At one point, according to court documents, the jail believed Rodríguez had contracted lice, so the guards placed her in isolation for five days. Then, before transport, they took her to the shower, made her strip naked and poured cleaning liquid over her head. Rodríguez said her eyes burned — she believed the liquid was also used to clean floors.
During her imprisonment in Alabama, according to court filings, Rodríguez was not allowed to contact her attorneys. Her husband, Alejandro Medina III, added money to her account, but the calling PIN the jail gave her didn’t work. She was able to reach him briefly when another person in custody shared their account. Rodríguez finally made contact with her legal team on March 14.
At a conference call, attorney Mike Holley said Rodríguez might’ve gotten out sooner. After she was granted a $10,000 bond by an immigration judge on Monday — and after waiting out the mandatory stay triggered by ICE attorneys’ reserving their right to appeal, although they eventually did not — Rodríguez’s family tried to post bond through an electronic system on Wednesday morning. This system requires approval for first-time users. Sometimes, attorney Joel Coxander said, approval arrives quickly. But sometimes, it takes days.
In Rodríguez’s case, it was the latter. Holley said on the call that Rodríguez’s family would drive to an immigration court in Memphis on Thursday morning to deliver the money by hand.
Rodríguez’s legal case remains ongoing on multiple fronts. On the same day she was detained, Rodríguez’s lawyers filed an emergency petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, asking a judge to review her detention. Arguing the case on behalf of ICE, government lawyers maintain that the claim is moot because Rodríguez has bonded out of detention. Rodríguez’s lawyers argue that the type of relief an immigration court can provide is different from what a federal court can award. They are seeking to conduct limited discovery — possibly including bodycam footage from ICE officers who participated in Rodríguez’s arrest — and an evidentiary hearing leading to an injunction against her re-detention.
As the next step in the case, Judge Eli Richardson has asked both sides to file briefs on the subject of mootness.
Rodríguez originally came to the U.S. lawfully from her native Colombia in 2021, fleeing threats related to her work as a journalist. Before her visa expired, she applied for asylum. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has not yet adjudicated that claim. On March 4 at its office, ICE served Rodríguez with a Notice to Appear (NTA), the document that officially initiates removal proceedings.
ICE may continue to pursue those proceedings. Coxander told the Banner that Rodríguez will continue to pursue an adjustment to her immigration status through her marriage to Medina. Since they got married in January, they’re still getting the first steps approved.
Coxander said the legal team felt that Rodríguez, through the habeas petition and through USCIS, had two viable paths for relief.
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
