“Every time you try to break my body, you fuel my spirit”
Cary López Alvarado, Aliya Rahman, and Jeanette Vizguerra come from different backgrounds, different life experiences, and different parts of the U.S. What unites these women is that all three have been unjustly targeted under the Trump administration’s chaotic immigration enforcement operations, which left them shaken, injured, and, in Vizguerra’s case, detained for months on end with no idea of when or even if she would see her family again.
What also unites them is their courage. While each has faced outrageousness at the hands of out-of-control federal immigration agents, they have continued to fight for justice and accountability. They know this isn’t just about them and what they each endured – it’s about all of us. This Women’s History Month, we honor and recognize their struggles – and their fight for a better tomorrow.
Last summer, Los Angeles resident and U.S. citizen Cary López Alvarado bravely spoke out about how she was racially profiled and physically assaulted by federal enforcement agents just one week from her baby’s due date, leading to her hospitalization. “I had cuts and bruises and both my hands and my feet were purple,” she later said. “I had dilated two centimeters from everything that happened.”
Her ordeal began when agents arrived at her workplace in search of her boyfriend, who had placed an urgent call to her saying that he and a cousin were being followed. López Alvarado knew her rights, and asked officers for a warrant in order to enter. But they instead accused her of interfering with their operation, violently restraining in front of shocked bystanders. The mother-to-be said all she could do was think of how she could protect her unborn child from any physical harm.
“I crouched down and held my belly, because I was scared they would hurt me,” she said. “Three agents were grabbing me and trying to handcuff me.” The Sacramento Bee reported that “footage the attorneys shared with McClatchy News shows Alvarado, who is visibly pregnant, being detained against a white truck.” Witnesses who recorded the unjust arrest could be heard shouting “let her go” and “she’s pregnant,” NBC News said.
While López Alvarado gave birth to a healthy child, it doesn’t erase the injustices she faced. Still reeling from her own trauma – “Every time I see a news or video, it does rewind in my head. It does get me very emotional, seeing stuff like that,” she said – López Alvarado joined a group of fellow U.S. citizens and one permanent resident to file legal claims against the federal government for civil rights violations. López Alvarado, who is seeking $1 million in damages, bravely spoke at an August news conference while holding her baby.
“They were going after hard-working people at the Home Depots, they go after hard-working agricultural workers in the fields,” said attorney Michael Carrillo. “Today is the beginning of justice for our people in these specific cases.”
Earlier this year, Americans were similarly shocked at images of officers dragging a disabled woman from her car. Aliya Rahman, a software engineer and Minneapolis resident, was driving to a medical appointment when she encountered a traffic jam created by ICE. “Agents on all sides of my vehicle yelled conflicting threats and instructions that I could not process while watching for pedestrians,” she said in Congressional testimony. “Then, the glass of the passenger side window flew across my face.”
Rahman, who has autism and a traumatic brain injury, tried to explain that she’s disabled but was dismissed by the officer. She said that her mind immediately jumped to community members who’ve been targeted and killed by law enforcement.
“Not all autistic brains do this, but mine fixates on sounds, numbers, and patterns,” she continued in her testimony. “In that moment the pattern felt very strong to me, and I thought of Jenoah Donald, an autistic Black man killed by police during a traffic stop in 2021. I remembered Mr. Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, who was killed by ICE in his vehicle last year.”
Rahman was subsequently taken to the Whipple Federal Building, where she said she witnessed the undignified treatment of other individuals. “The impacts of DHS detention on my physical, mental, and financial wellbeing and safety have been very severe,” she continued. “But I do not deserve more humane treatment than anyone else, and I am here today with a strong spirit and a duty to the many people who haven’t had the privilege of being released or seeing their loved ones come home.”
Rahman has continued to challenge the targeting of her Minnesota community, attending last month’s State of the Union address as a guest of Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN–05). Shockingly, Rahman faced continued harassment when she was arrested and removed from the chamber. Her crime? “Silently challenging” the president by standing up during his speech. “During her conversation with Capitol Police officers, the crowd around her gave a standing ovation, which Rahman tried to explain to the officers was a reason she should not be forced to leave,” NBC News reported.
She again required medical attention but was nevertheless undeterred. “Every time you try to break my body, you fuel my spirit,” she later said.
And who could ever forget the bravery of Jeanette Vizguerra, an immigrant rights champion who made national headlines after seeking sanctuary in a church during the first Trump administration in order to keep her family together. In 2017, TIME named Vizguerra to its most influential people list, where actor and activist America Ferrera called her an example of the “American Dream.”
The administration turned that dream into a nightmare in March of last year, when ICE agents stalked Vizguerra during her shift at a Target store and took her into custody. “We finally got you,” an agent reportedly said while detaining her. The administration also reveled in her arrest, boasting that undocumented immigrants will be targeted “regardless of if they were a featured ‘Time Person of the Year.’”
If the goal was to break Vizguerra’s spirit, it was a failed mission. While there’s no doubt that being jailed at the privately-operated Aurora ICE Processing Center and separated from her children was agonizing, Vizguerra said that she clung to hope throughout her nine months of detention, in particular during the times when her supporters would gather outside the facility to pray, chant, and sing. Vizguerra could hear their voices, she said.
She finally won her freedom just days before Christmas. “Jeanette – and many others – have been deprived of their freedom for the simple act of speaking truth to power,” said Jordan Garcia, co-director of the American Friends Service Committee in Colorado. “But their attempts to silence us did not and will not succeed.”
“I need to return home, not only for my family and my grandchildren, but also for my community, which needs me,” Vizguerra said ahead of her release. “They need a strong, solid leader to guide them, to direct them, to show them how we must continue this fight. I said it in the past, and I say it now: they will not silence me. No matter where I am, I will continue to defend my values and my community.”
