US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Thursday released Estefany Rodríguez Flórez, a reporter whose work includes covering ICE for Nashville Noticias, after 16 days in custody on $10,000 bond.

The federal government has alleged that Florez illegally overstayed a tourist visa and failed to attend two immigration appointments.  The first happened during a massive winter storm that closed most offices in Nashville, including ICE. At the second appointment, Florez and her fiancée went to the ICE offices, learned that there was no record of the appointment, and left.

Florez was detained on March 4 in what her attorneys called a warrantless arrest.  At the time of her detention, Rodríguez had a pending green card application and a work permit issued by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Florez has filed many stories that are critical of ICE, according to a writ of habeas corpus filed by the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), which represents her.

TIRRC alleges that Florez was subject to “inhumane and difficult treatment” while detained. An officer poured a harsh liquid on her head, burning her eyes, allegedly due to concerns about lice.  She was kept in isolation for the first five days of her detention and denied access to counsel, according to TIRRC.

The writ claims that Florez’s arrest is a violation of her rights under the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments.  The petition asks the court to enjoin ICE from taking any enforcement action against Florez “to retaliate against her past speech or to chill her future speech.”

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press joined several other press freedom groups in filing an amicus curiae brief on March 16.  The brief says that the “arrest and detention of non-citizen journalists such as Rodriguez poses concrete harms to specific types of newsgathering and reporting” and that “where the factual record suggests that the government is targeting journalists for arrest and detention because of the exercise of their right to … report the news … courts should apply a First Amendment retaliation analysis to the request for habeas relief.”

In February, the US Department of Justice indicted independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in connection with their coverage of an anti-ICE protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.