A pregnant US citizen who was detained by federal agents about two weeks ago has since given birth to a healthy baby girl, but her boyfriend is now being held out of state, and her problems are far from resolved.
Cary López Alvarado told Nexstar’s KTLA that she “tried to remain strong” during the terrifying incident, which occurred outside a building where her boyfriend and cousin were performing maintenance work on June 8. She was nine-months pregnant at the time.
López’s video shows her struggling with a masked Border Patrol agent who asks for her identification while she is protecting a truck carrying her boyfriend Brayan Nájera and cousin Alberto Sandoval, the latter of whom is also a US citizen.
All three of them were eventually detained. Additional social media footage shows agents detaining López after pinning her truck between a wall.
“They had already tackled my cousin and my boyfriend to the ground. “That’s when I was inside the car, banging on the door,” López explained. “I was asking ‘What are you doing?'” Why are you treating us like this? “We did not do anything wrong.”
According to a Department of Homeland Security representative, López was arrested for obstructing agents’ access to a car with “two Guatemalan illegal aliens” inside.
“During this incident, agents were assaulted, and an additional subject was taken into custody for pushing an officer,” according to the statement.
The soon-to-be mother was taken to a processing facility in San Pedro, where she claims the agents assumed she was undocumented.
“[They asked] ‘But you’re from Mexico, right?’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’m from here,'” López explained. “[They asked]…” ‘Where’s here?’ and I say, ‘Here, the United States, Los Angeles.”
“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 told me. “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.”
López was released after complaining of stomach pain and went straight to the hospital, where she began having contractions, which she believes were caused by the stress of what she had experienced.
Four days after the incident, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, but the stress isn’t over yet, as the baby’s father, Nájera, is said to be detained at a Texas facility, despite López’s claim that he has a spotless record.
“He doesn’t have any criminal record or anything,” she informed me. “They took him while he was working, which hurts because he did nothing wrong. He was simply working and taking care of his family. “Why are you treating other people like this when they are not criminals?”
“It makes no difference what colour or race you are… “At the end of the day, we’re all human,” she said through tears.
López’s legal team informed KTLA that she had not been charged with any crime. In the meantime, she will stay at home with her new baby girl.
