Overview

• On June 8, ICE agents detained Cary López Alvarado in Hawthorne, California, alleging she obstructed the arrest of her undocumented partner and his coworker despite her U.S. citizenship and advanced pregnancy.
• Video and eyewitnesses show agents shoved López Alvarado as she tried to shield her stomach, and she was hospitalized with severe abdominal pains after her release.
• Her cousin, Alberto Sandoval, was also arrested during the operation and remains jailed on assault charges stemming from the same incident.
• The raid was part of a broader Southern California enforcement campaign that arrested dozens of migrants and triggered five consecutive days of protests, leading to National Guard and U.S. Marines deployments in Los Angeles.
• The Department of Homeland Security defends López Alvarado’s detention as a lawful obstruction response, while critics decry it as evidence of ICE’s abuse of power under the administration’s mass-deportation drive.