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.
