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A Nashville Spanish-language news journalist will spend another night in immigration detention after technical difficulties with the government’s electronic bail-posting system prevented her husband from securing her release, her attorney told a federal judge Wednesday. 

Estefany Rodríguez, a journalist with Nashville Noticias who reported on local immigration raids in recent months, has spent two weeks in federal custody. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Rodríguez early March 4 after she and her husband dropped off her 7-year-old daughter on a school day.

A lawsuit filed the day of her arrest seeks Rodríguez’ immediate release, challenges her arrest as unlawful and asks for an order restraining ICE from retaliating against Rodríguez for exercising her free speech rights as a journalist. An initial hearing on those claims took place Tuesday. 

Estefany Rodríguez, journalist detained by ICE, expected to be released Wednesday, attorneys say

But the relief Rodríguez’s attorneys are seeking in the lawsuit turns, in part, on the extent to which Rodríguez will remain under ICE supervision, including conditions tied to her release that restrict her liberty, such as ankle monitoring. Rodríguez’s release on bond was expected early Wednesday and U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson convened a conference call late in the day to confirm her release and review conditions Rodríguez must follow. 

Rodríguez’ release conditions, however, have not yet been set, Michael Holley, Rodríguez’ attorney, told Richardson.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mercedes Maynor-Falcoun is seeking dismissal of the lawsuit, arguing the federal court has no jurisdiction over an immigration case that has not yet been appealed to an immigration appeals court. Maynor-Falcoun also argued that Rodríguez’s release would render moot the lawsuit’s claims that her detention was illegal.

The 20-minute court conference call Wednesday resulted in no decision on the substance of Rodríguez’ allegations in the lawsuit, which include allegations that she was unlawfully detained without a warrant and in retaliation for her reporting — allegations the government denies. Richardson instead directed attorneys to submit written filings detailing the status of her release and additional legal arguments that could require the federal court to intervene. 

Rodríguez, 35, arrived in the United States on a tourist visa from Colombia five years ago, then filed an asylum petition before her tourist visa expired citing threats she had received reporting on government corruption in her native Colombia.. The asylum claim is still pending, her attorneys wrote in court filings. In January, Rodríguez separately petitioned for legal permanent status based on her marriage to a U.S. citizen. 

The case has sparked national attention, including from press freedom advocates. On Tuesday, a coalition of national and international media groups filed a legal brief in support of Rodríguez, writing the detention of a journalist who had critically reported on ICE activities had a chilling effect on free expression.

Maynor-Falcoun on Tuesday told the court it was not yet settled whether Rodríguez’ was entitled to First Amendment rights.

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

Rodríguez’s husband, Alejandro Medina, will travel to Memphis Thursday to post $10,000 bond in person to secure his wife’s release, Holley said.

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