A 28-year-old pregnant woman, just a week away from her due date, says she ended up in the hospital after immigration agents detained her despite her repeated statements that she is a U.S. citizen.
Cary López Alvarado spoke from her hospital bed Monday, describing how agents detained her over the weekend in Hawthorne, California. She told NBC Los Angeles that during the encounter, agents shoved her, causing her to lose balance. “That’s when I leaned forward, trying to protect my stomach,” she said tearfully.
Related posts
“I was afraid they were going to hurt me,” she added in an interview with Noticias Telemundo 52.
López Alvarado, who was released later that day, began experiencing sharp stomach pains after the arrest. Doctors admitted her to the hospital for observation. With only days left until her June 17 due date, physicians kept her overnight to monitor her and the baby.
The incident occurred when immigration agents followed a white pickup truck carrying two undocumented workers, including López Alvarado’s partner, Brian Nájera. Agents in marked U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles pulled into a private parking lot where López Alvarado and her cousin, Alberto Sandoval—both U.S. citizens—were working. They had opened the gate to let Nájera and another co-worker enter the building for maintenance work.
López Alvarado believed agents needed a warrant to enter the premises. “They had us all surrounded,” she recalled.
She recorded the incident on video, capturing the moment she tried to block the agents at the gate. In the footage, she tells one agent, “This is private property. I’m gonna need you guys to leave.”
An agent responds: “Excuse me, ma’am. You are interfering with my arrest. I’m doing my job. … Can you please move away?”
“I’m not moving away,” López Alvarado replies.
Agents arrested her, Nájera, her cousin, and the co-worker. She says they told her the parking lot didn’t qualify as private property. After the arrest, they separated her from Nájera and placed them in different vehicles.
López Alvarado said the agents told her, “Calm down, calm down, you’re pregnant.” Through tears, she recalled replying, “How can I calm down?”
Despite telling the agents she was due in a week and was born in Los Angeles at Hollywood Hospital, López Alvarado said one officer responded, “OK, your baby is going to be born here, but you’re from Mexico, right?”
“I told them, ‘No. I was born here,’” she said in Spanish.
The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed the arrest. In a statement to NBC News, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said agents detained López Alvarado because she obstructed their operation by blocking access to a vehicle containing “two Guatemalan illegal aliens.”
McLaughlin added that during the incident, “agents were assaulted,” and “rioters began throwing wrenches and batteries at agents.” She emphasized that any individual—citizen or not—who obstructs or assaults law enforcement will face consequences.
The arrest took place during a weekend of coordinated immigration raids across Southern California, which led to dozens of arrests and five consecutive days of protests in Los Angeles.
Bystanders who witnessed López Alvarado’s arrest captured video of agents handcuffing her. In the footage, people shout, “Let her go” and “She’s pregnant!”
Authorities released López Alvarado shortly after her arrest and transported her home. She said agents informed her she might be contacted later about obstruction allegations, but they did not provide any documents or citations.
Her cousin Sandoval remains in custody, facing assault charges. His mother, María Alvarado, said, “My son didn’t attack. He was attacked. There’s video. There’s evidence.”
López Alvarado said she never resisted. “I can’t fight back,” she told Noticias Telemundo. “I’m pregnant.”
