ICE Detains Heavily Pregnant Citizen and Two Others

On 8 June 2025 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Hawthorne, California detained heavily pregnant citizen Cary López Alvarado a week before her due date, her cousin Alberto Sandoval who is also a citizen, and her undocumented immigrant boyfriend Brayan Nájera at a private business.

Federal agents in Customs and Border Patrol vehicles and uniforms wore neck gaiters pulled up to obscure their faces. They had followed the two men to their workplace. López tried to block doors to enter the workplace. In video of the incident, she can be heard saying, “I’m gonna need you guys to leave. This is private property.”

ICE needs a judicial warrant to go into private homes and non-public areas of a business.

The agents mocked López’ assertions that they were on private property, accused her of interfering with their job, refused to show identification and did not show even an administrative warrant.

About her arrest, López said, “They started grabbing me from both sides, and I ducked down to sort of shield my stomach because I was afraid they were going to hurt me. “I told them it [her due date] was June 17, and they said, ‘OK, your baby is going to be born here, but you’re from Mexico, right?’ And I told them no.”

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said López was arrested for obstructing agents who were trying to get “two Guatemalan illegal aliens” from inside a car. The spokesperson claimed agents were assaulted and pushed. Video of the incident does not mesh with the spokesperson’s account.

At the processing center in San Pedro, agents there assumed all three people were immigrants. López said, “They put us in chains, so I had a chain from my hands under my belly that went all the way to my legs. Every now and then, I would fix my hands because I felt like I would be putting too much pressure because the chain went under my belly.”

She was eventually released with no documentation and no charges. She had stomach pain and went to a hospital instead of to home. She began to have contractions. Four days later, she gave birth to a baby girl.

By then Nájera had reportedly been transferred to a detention center in Texas. López says his record is spotless.

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