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Estefany Rodríguez, a Nashville journalist whose arrest by immigration enforcement officers earlier this month has drawn national attention, is expected to post bond and return home from a Louisiana detention facility today, her attorneys said Tuesday.

The attorneys’ remarks followed a nearly three-hour hearing in a downtown Nashville federal courtroom to consider Rodríguez’ constitutional challenges to her arrest and detention. 

U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson made no decisions during the hearing, instead setting a status conference for 4 p.m. today to confirm Rodríguez has been released before the case moves forward.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mercedes Maynor-Faulcon told Richardson the federal government has not appealed an immigration judge’s decision on Monday to grant Rodríguez’s release, conditioned on posting $10,000 bond. Rodríguez was free to post bond and be released at any time, she said. 

After the hearing, attorneys for Rodriguez said they were pleased to hear the government attorney say there were no impediments to her release. Her release had been held up since Monday pending word on whether the federal government would seek to keep her in detention pending an appeal.

Nashville journalist arrested by ICE granted bond, remains detained while feds considers appeal

“Our expectation, based off of what was said today, is that she will be able to pay bond, and our plan is for her to pay bond and to hopefully be released as soon as possible tomorrow,” said Joel Coxander, Rodríguez’ attorney. Rodríguez is also represented by a team of attorneys with the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition.

Rodríguez, a 35-year-old asylum seeker from Colombia who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested early on March 4 after she and her husband dropped off her 7-year-old daughter.

Rodríguez’ attorneys filed an emergency petition in federal court the same day seeking her immediate release. They have alleged her arrest was in retaliation for critical reporting on local ICE enforcement actions. They are seeking a court order barring ICE from taking action against her for her reporting in the future.

They have also alleged ICE officials failed to serve her with a warrant before she was detained.

Rodríguez has a pending asylum claim, based on threats she experienced as a journalist reporting on political corruption in Colombia, her attorneys wrote in court filings. She has a work permit valid through 2029, court records show. In January she filed a separate petition for permanent legal status based on her marriage to an American citizen.

Rodriguez is a reporter with the Spanish-language news outlet Nashville Noticias. In recent months, she has reported on local ICE arrests and their impacts on family members left behind, including up to the day preceding her own arrest.

Court orders ICE to justify arrest of Nashville journalist 

On Tuesday, a coalition of media groups, including the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Committee to Protect Journalists, Foreign Press Association USA and National Press Club filed a legal brief in support of her free speech rights as a journalist. 

Rodríguez’ attorneys also alleged she has endured “inhumane and difficult treatment” while in custody, including being forced to strip naked in a shower while an officer “poured some kind of chemical liquid on her head, which seemed to be something used to clean floors and burned her eyes,” allegedly as a treatment for lice, the filing read.

Government attorneys have denied that her arrest was retaliatory. 

Rodríguez, they said in court filings, overstayed a tourist visa five years ago and remains subject to deportation despite her pending asylum claim. 

Maynor-Faulcon, the government attorney, argued in court Tuesday that Rodríguez had failed to show up for scheduled immigration appointments, triggering the enforcement action against her. 

There remains an ongoing dispute over whether the meetings Rodríguez was asked to attend were cancelled or rescheduled.

Her allegations about abusive detention conditions were not taken up during Tuesday’s hearing.

Maynor-Faulcon also questioned Rodríguez’ right to assert First Amendment claims due to her immigration status. 

“I haven’t seen we’ve gotten past the initial hurdle of whether an undocumented illegal alien (is) entitled to that,” she said.