A 28-year-old pregnant woman set to give birth as early as next week is speaking out about being detained by immigration authorities in California, even after telling agents she was a U.S. citizen.
Cary López Alvarado lost her balance as agents “shoved her” during her arrest over the weekend, she tearfully told NBC Los Angeles on Monday from a hospital bed. “That’s when I kind of leaned forward, trying to protect the stomach.”
López Alvarado told Telemundo 52, NBC’s sister station in Los Angeles, “I was afraid that they were going to hurt me.”
After being released Sunday, López Alvarado said she started experiencing sharp pains in her stomach and was hospitalized. With just one week left before her due date, her doctors said they are monitoring López Alvarado as well as her baby, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Masked men wearing Border Patrol uniforms pulled up to a building’s private parking in the city of Hawthorne in marked U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles on Sunday, after following a white pickup truck with two undocumented workers, one of which is López Alvarado’s partner.
López Alvarado and her cousin Alberto Sandoval, who is also a U.S. citizen, opened the parking’s gate so her partner and co-worker could come in. López Alvarado and Sandoval as well as her partner and the other co-worker were in the building doing maintenance work.
López Alvarado said she and her cousin believed agents would need to show they had a warrant to be able to enter their workplace.
“They had us all surrounded,” López Alvarado told NBC Los Angeles on Monday.
López Alvarado captured her interactions with immigration enforcement agents on video.
In one video, she can be heard telling the agents, “I’m gonna need you guys to leave. This is private property.”
As the agents “were trying to forcefully open” the gates, López Alvarado said she “was blocking the door” and “I told them they were in private property.”
In another video, one of the agents 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 told the agent.
López Alvarado said agents told her the parking wasn’t private property and arrested her alongside her partner, her cousin and her co-worker.
The arrests took place on the same weekend in which immigration authorities conducted a series of raids in Southern California, arresting dozens of people and triggering five consecutive days of protests in Los Angeles.
Witnesses filmed the moment immigration authorities handcuffed López Alvarado. They can be heard shouting at the agents to “let her go” and “she’s pregnant.”
López Alvarado said agents told her she was taken into custody for trying to obstruct their operation.
“I wasn’t resisting or anything,” she said. “I can’t fight back; I’m pregnant.”
During the arrest, López Alvarado said she told agents she was due on June 17. The agents responded, “’OK, your baby is going to be born here, but you’re from Mexico, right?’ And I told them no,” she said.
“I was born here,” López Alvarado told Telemundo 52 in Spanish. “I was born in Los Angeles, I was born in Hollywood Hospital.”
López Alvarado was released shortly after the arrest and taken to her home. She was told that agents would contact her at a later time about the obstruction allegations. She said no one gave her any documents or citations in connection with the arrest.
Her cousin, Sandoval, was not released because he faces assault charges, his mother María Alvarado, told Telemundo 52. “My son didn’t attack. He was attacked. There are videos. There’s evidence,” the mother said in Spanish.
The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to requests for comment.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged NBC News’ request but did not provide any comment.
Mekahlo Medina and Karla Rendon, NBC Los Angeles contributed.
