On Tuesday, Estefany Maria Rodriguez Florez, a journalist for a Spanish-language news outlet in Nashville, reported on four immigration-related arrests in Middle Tennessee.
On Wednesday, Ms. Rodriguez was herself being tracked by immigration agents and then was taken into custody, accused of violating the conditions of her visa.
The arrest of Ms. Rodriguez, an immigrant who was seeking asylum in the United States after she said she received threats for her reporting in her native Colombia, prompted an immediate outcry in Nashville and beyond. And some wondered whether her work documenting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown had made her a target.
“We’re concerned one of the motivating reasons could be that she’s a journalist,” said Alejandro Medina III, Ms. Rodriguez’s husband, in an interview. Ms. Rodriguez had applied to obtain a green card after marrying Mr. Medina, an American citizen, in January. Her lawyer has challenged her detention in court, and in a filing on Friday said that he believed there were indications Ms. Rodriguez had been targeted because of her reporting.
In a written statement, a spokeswoman for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said on Friday that Ms. Rodriguez had overstayed her tourist visa “and currently has no lawful immigration status.”
But even amid the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement operations, Ms. Rodriguez is an unusual target for detention. She has an active asylum case, a pending green card application through her American husband and no criminal record. In the past, immigrants applying for green cards through their American spouses were not subject to detention, even if they had overstayed their visas.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists said it “denounces immigration enforcement that involves detaining journalists and expresses concern about setting a dangerous precedent for journalists covering immigration.”
Katherine Jacobsen, a program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, warned that the United States, which has long served as a safe haven for journalists fleeing retaliation, is now showing “a cruel disregard for this tradition.”
Ms. Rodriguez arrived in the United States in March 2021 on a tourist visa, then filed for political asylum. With that case pending, Ms. Rodriguez received a work permit and in 2022 began reporting for Nashville Noticias, which serves Middle Tennessee’s significant Spanish-speaking community.
At Nashville Noticias, Ms. Rodriguez reported on a wide variety of daily news — holiday events, the weather — as well as a stream of immigration-related arrests that have taken place in Nashville over the past year.
“She’s a journalist in her blood,” Mr. Medina, her husband, said. He recalled her once saying that “maybe that God’s plan for her ending up in this country was to be able to make an impact on her local community” through her reporting.
In a statement, Nashville Noticias expressed its “respect for the laws of the United States and hopes that this situation will be resolved favorably for our colleague so that she can be released soon.”
Ms. Rodriguez and Mr. Medina were married in January, he said in an interview, and she then applied to obtain a green card through marriage. But that same month, she received a letter from ICE asking that she come in for “processing and additional information,” according to court filings.
The appointment got postponed when an ice storm hit Nashville, Mr. Medina said. Her lawyers appeared ahead of the rescheduled appointment — she “proactively attempted to comply,” her lawyer said — but the appointment was moved again, to March 17.
Then, on Wednesday morning, immigration agents followed Mr. Medina and Ms. Rodriguez as they drove to the gym in her work car emblazoned with the Nashville Noticias logo. When he pulled into a parking space, Mr. Medina said, his car was surrounded by agents in unmarked cars in tactical gear.
One agent told him that Ms. Rodriguez was in the country illegally and had missed two appointments, Mr. Medina said.
She has been in custody ever since.
It was not clear why Ms. Rodriguez had been targeted for arrest, but internal government documents reviewed by The Times show that immigration authorities had been tracking Ms. Rodriguez all morning, following the couple as they waved goodbye to their daughter on her bus to school.
As of Friday, Ms. Rodriguez was being held in Alabama, according to court filings. Her lawyer, Joel Coxander, said he expected that she would be transferred to a detention center in Louisiana.
In court filings on Friday, Mr. Coxander said he believed that there were indications that Ms. Rodriguez had been targeted because of her reporting. He also accused ICE of arresting Ms. Rodriguez without a valid warrant, which the ICE spokeswoman denied.
Judge Eli J. Richardson of the Middle District of Tennessee, who was appointed during President Trump’s first term, will decide whether to approve an emergency request for Ms. Rodriguez’s release. A hearing could come as early as Monday.
Mr. Medina said he had not yet told Ms. Rodriguez’s young daughter what happened.
“At some point, we might have to have that conversation,” he said. “I’m concerned for my wife.”
Georgia Gee contribued research.
Emily Cochrane is a national reporter for The Times covering the American South, based in Nashville.
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