Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Stands in Support of Nashville Noticias Reporter, Estefany Rodriguez Florez
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2026
Contact: media@tnimmigrant.org
Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Stands in Support of Nashville Noticias Reporter, Estefany Rodriguez Florez
NASHVILLE—TIRRC and the Nashville community stands with Estefany Rodriguez Florez and her family as she was detained by ICE earlier this week. Estefany is a beloved community member and trusted journalist in the community.
We believe that all of us in Tennessee and in America, regardless of your race, your immigration status, or your profession, deserve to be treated fairly by the government.
The reality is that when a presidential administration promises mass deportation, the result is that our neighbors, friends, and family end up as collateral damage, getting detained and potentially deported, even if they are doing everything they can to navigate our complex and broken immigration laws.
It’s not lost on us that as a reporter, Estafany honestly and courageously told real stories about the harms caused by ICE and the people they targeted and detained.
This aggressive deployment of immigration agents in our neighborhoods and community has to stop. Tennesseans shouldn’t have to live in fear of our own government coming after us for who we are or how we came to call Tennessee home.
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The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is a statewide, immigrant and refugee-led collaboration whose mission is to build power, amplify our voices, and organize communities to advocate for our rights in order to build a stronger, more inclusive Tennessee where people of all nationalities, immigration statuses, and racial identities can belong and thrive. Since its founding in 2001, TIRRC has grown from a grassroots network of community leaders into one of the most diverse and effective coalitions of its kind, a model for emerging immigrant rights organizations in the Southeast and throughout the United States.