The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has been heavily criticized, as multiple instances have shown masked ICE agents using excessive force while arresting immigrants. The department has also faced backlash for sometimes making wrongful arrests of American citizens and green card holders. A similar incident has come to light where a 9-months pregnant woman landed in the hospital after ICE agents detained her, even though she told them that she is a US citizen.
23-year-old Cary López Alvarado, who was in her third trimester, claimed that she was shoved by ICE agents in a private parking lot in Hawthorne, California. She revealed that the agents who came in marked U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles followed a pickup truck carrying two undocumented workers. One of them was Alvarado’s boyfriend Brian Nájera. The agents followed the truck into a gated parking lot where Alvarado and her cousin Alberto Sandoval were doing some maintenance work.
Alvarado and her cousin blocked the gate, since the property was private. However, the ICE agents then used force to open the gate to arrest the illegal immigrants. The woman claims that three ICE agents grabbed her and placed her in handcuffs. All this while, she was trying to protect her belly and repeatedly kept telling them that she was a US citizen.
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“They had us all surrounded,” Alvarado recalled the fateful day. Meanwhile, the bystanders kept yelling to remind ICE agents that she was pregnant. The incident was captured on camera and is now going viral on social media.
The authorities kept her in custody for nearly eight hours. She was released when she complained about sharp stomach pains. She was immediately hospitalized, where the doctors kept her under observation overnight to ensure that she and her baby were safe.
Alvarado said, “I wasn’t resisting or anything. I can’t fight back; I’m pregnant.”
She also recalled that during the encounter with ICE agents, her nationality was questioned. She said, “They told me, ‘OK, your baby is going to be born here, but you’re from Mexico, right?’ And I told them no — I was born here, in Los Angeles.”
As the incident came to light and drew public scrutiny, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended Alvarado’s arrest. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin clarified in a statement that the woman was detained for obstructing a federal operation.
“During this incident, agents were assaulted, and an additional subject was taken into custody after he pushed an officer. Anyone who actively obstructs or assaults law enforcement, including U.S. citizens, will of course face consequences,” McLaughlin said.
Alvarado gave birth to her child four days after the incident. She tearfully said that the agents have “no empathy for anybody at the moment.”
She said that she was handcuffed during the entire eight hours she was in custody. She told that she kept crying the entire time while worrying about the well-being of her unborn baby. The woman went on to reveal that her 19-year-old boyfriend Brian Nájera was late to his immigration appointment last year after their car broke down. Therefore, he was slated for deportation back to Guatemala.
“He’s not a criminal. He didn’t do anything wrong. He was just trying to provide for both of us,” said Alvarado as she broke into tears.
Her cousin and her boyfriend are still in custody. While Brian is facing deportation, Alberto Sandoval is facing assault charges. However, his mother, Maria Alvarado, refuted the allegations and claimed that her son was attacked rather than being the attacker. “There are videos, there’s evidence,” she said.
Meanwhile, a petition has been started calling for the investigation of the violent arrest of Alvarado and to hold the involved agents accountable for “endangering a pregnant citizen.” The petition on Change.org says that the woman “was on private property, exercising her right to film and question the agents’ actions, when she was arrested. Videos confirm she was calm, not resisting, and not violent. Yet she was treated with force and disrespect by agents who wrongly questioned her citizenship and ignored her medical condition.”
ICE thugs in California arrested a pregnant US citizen and she prematurely went into labor.
Cary Lopez Alvarado is seeking $1 million in damages in connection with her arrest. pic.twitter.com/jOjGcnFW19
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) August 27, 2025
However, the incident has received polarized views. While many are criticizing ICE for arresting the woman, some have stood in support of the authorities.
An Instagram user wrote, “So she thought because she was pregnant she thought it would be okay to impede the agents investigation, and her boyfriend wouldn’t be detained?”
“Interfering will get you arrested regardless,” wrote another.
Well, what do you think of this incident?
