By Ana Milena Varón
Los Angeles, US, Jun 19 (EFE).- Several United States-born Latinos have been detained during ongoing immigration raids in Los Angeles, fueling growing accusations of racial profiling by federal agents. Among the most alarming cases is that of a nine-month-pregnant woman who gave birth days after her arrest.
After two weeks of intensified Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations across the city, hundreds have been detained.
(FILE) – Image taken at the entrance of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Immigration Detention Center in Adelanto, Calif. Aug. 30, 2017. EFE/Iván Mejía
But immigrant rights advocates say not all detainees are undocumented, and many are Latino citizens mistakenly swept up in the raids.
“This is chaos,” said Angélica Salas, director of the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). “US citizens are being detained and disappearing because of the color of their skin.”
Pregnant woman shackled, citizen family members held
On Jun. 8, Cary López Alvarado, 23, was detained by masked federal agents in Hawthorne, alongside her partner Brayan Nájera and her cousin Alberto Sandoval, both US citizens.
Despite insisting she was born in Los Angeles, López was taken to a Border Patrol processing center.
“They said, ‘But you’re from Mexico, right?’ I told, ‘No, I’m from Los Angeles, United States,’” she recalled in an interview with KTLA.
She reported being shackled from wrists to ankles, the restraints pressing against her pregnant belly.
After complaining of pain, she was released and taken to a hospital, where she began contractions. Four days later, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
Her partner, a Guatemalan national, was transferred to a detention facility in Texas and has not met his newborn daughter. Their attorney, Luis Carrillo, described the arrest as “outrageous and heartbreaking.”
“The excessive use of force by federal agents was unnecessary and could have caused a miscarriage due to the stress,” Carrillo told EFE.
López now faces the financial and emotional burden of raising her child alone, as Nájera was the family’s primary provider and now faces legal obstacles far from home.
Viral videos show citizens targeted during raids
More reports have emerged of Latino citizens, shouting,
“I have my passport! I have my ID! I’m a US citizen!” while being arrested outside his business. He was taken along with one of his employees.
On Tuesday, nearly 1,000 residents of Pico Rivera, a majority-Latino city, protested the arrest of 20-year-old Adrián Andrew Martínez, a Walmart employee.
Video footage shows agents forcefully grabbing Martínez by the neck and slamming him to the ground, despite bystanders insisting he was a citizen and store worker.
Local officials expressed alarm. “I’m very concerned about what’s happening to our residents during these raids,” said Pico Rivera City Manager Steve Carmona.
In all three incidents, federal authorities claim the citizens were arrested for obstructing ICE operations.
However, civil rights advocates warn that the pattern of detaining Latinos, regardless of legal status, underscores systemic racial profiling.
The Department of Homeland Security has not commented on individual cases, but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has stated the Los Angeles operations could last up to 60 days.
EFE
