A pregnant woman from the US, just days away from giving birth, found herself in a terrifying situation after being detained by federal agents and while she’s now welcomed a healthy baby girl into the world, the emotional toll is far from over, as her boyfriend remains in custody out of state.
Cary López Alvarado shared her ordeal with KTLA, recalling the moment she tried to stay calm and composed while heavily pregnant and surrounded by federal agents. It all started on 8 June, right outside a building where her boyfriend, Brayan Nájera, and cousin Alberto Sandoval were doing some maintenance work. Things escalated quickly. She was nine months pregnant, just trying to shield the truck that her boyfriend and cousin were in when a masked agent approached, demanding her ID.
She filmed some of it, capturing the chaos. In one clip, her truck was boxed in, and she could be seen trying to talk to the agents while inside the car. “They had my boyfriend on the ground already, and they had tackled my cousin down,” she recalled. “That’s when I was inside the car, just banging on the door. I was asking, ‘What are you doing? Why are you guys treating us like this? We didn’t do anything wrong.’”
Eventually, all three were detained. The Department of Homeland Security later issued a statement claiming she was interfering with their access to a vehicle carrying “two Guatemalan illegal aliens.” They also alleged that during the arrest, agents were assaulted and someone else was taken in for pushing an officer.
But López said agents wrongly assumed she wasn’t American. While being taken to a processing facility in San Pedro, she says they instantly believed she was undocumented. “[They said] ‘But you’re from Mexico, right?’ And I’m like ‘No, I’m from here,’” she said. “They asked, ‘Where’s here?’ and I’m like, ‘Here, the U.S., Los Angeles.’”
She described being shackled with chains, despite being heavily pregnant. “They put us in chains, so I had a chain from my hands under my belly that went all the way to my legs,” she said. “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.”
Not long after, she began experiencing stomach pains. Authorities eventually released her, and she was rushed to hospital, where she went into labour. Four days after the whole ordeal, she gave birth to a healthy daughter.
But the stress continues. Her boyfriend, Nájera, is still being held in a Texas facility. López insists he’s never been in trouble. “He doesn’t have any criminal record or anything,” she said. “They took him while he was working, and that hurts because he didn’t do anything wrong. He was just working and taking care of his family.”
Fighting back tears, she added, “The colour doesn’t matter, the race doesn’t matter … at the end of the day, we are all human.”
KTLA confirmed that López hasn’t been charged with any crime. She’s now home, focusing on her newborn, while trying to find legal help for Nájera. A GoFundMe page has been created to help cover legal fees and childcare costs as she navigates the weeks ahead without him.