Journalist Freed After ICE Detention

0:00I'm Cory with the story, bringing you the latest from Birmingham News today. As Stephanie Rodriguez Flores, a reporter for Nashville Notesha's in Tennessee, walked free this Thursday after more than two weeks in immigration, detention. The Colombian journalist, known for her critical stories on U.S. immigration and customs enforcement or IC, was arrested during a traffic stop on. March 4th, she paid a $10,000 bond set by an immigration judge just days earlier. Rodriguez entered the U.S. legally five years ago and holds a valid work permit while awaiting asylum approval tied to her U.S. citizen husband. She has no criminal record, steady work, strong community ties, and a seven-year-old daughter at home. After her arrest, she was held in jail in Alabama and then Louisiana. Her legal team and supporters argue the detention targeted her because of her reporting on ice under the previous administration. They claim it violated her first amendment free speech rights, due process, and protections

1:00against unreasonable searches. Press groups have raised alarms that this could chill journalism by non-citizen reporters. The government maintains it was a standard decision to start removal proceedings and denies any rights violations. Attorney's question the arrest warrants validity and note delays in her immigration meetings before the stop. Now out on bond, Rodriguez reunites with family as her lawyers push forward with the wrongful detention challenge. They seek not just her full release, but safeguards against future ice actions like this.