A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted a Democratic congressional candidate and other protesters for allegedly impeding federal immigration enforcement.
Kat Abughazaleh, a Democratic congressional candidate from the Chicago area, was among six individuals indicted in federal court for her alleged role in late September blocking law enforcement vehicles outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview, Illinois, according to court documents. The charges make Abughazaleh the latest Democrat to face legal consequences following a violent clash with federal immigration authorities.
“I have been charged in a federal indictment sought by the Department of Justice,” she stated in a social media post. “This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights.”
“I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win,” Abughazaleh continued Wednesday.
The indictment says Abughazaleh “physically hindered and impeded” a federal agent who was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators” during an incident on Sept. 26. Protesters Michael Rabbitt, Andre Martin, Catherine Sharp, Brian Straw and Joselyn Walsh were also named in the indictment alongside the congressional candidate.
The group of protesters “conspired with one another and others, known and unknown, to prevent by force, intimidation, and threat, Agent A, a United States law enforcement officer, from discharging the duties of his office, and to injure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, and while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, and to injure his property so as to interrupt, hinder, and impede him in the discharge of his official duties,” according to court documents.
Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old social media influencer and former journalist, is running for Illinois’ 9th congressional district, currently occupied by retiring Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky. The liberal activist has repeatedly clashed with federal immigration agents cracking down on illegal migrant criminals in the Chicago area.
Earlier in September, she was slammed into the pavement by an ICE agent after attempting to block vehicles by linking arms with demonstrators around the Broadview facility.
Similar incidents have occurred since President Donald Trump re-entered the White House and began nationwide deportation operations.
ICE agents in June detained New York City Comptroller Brad Lander after he allegedly assaulted immigration officers outside a Midtown Manhattan courthouse. Lander at the time was a Democratic candidate for the 2025 New York mayoral election.
Federal agents detained Newark Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka in May after he allegedly trespassed at an ICE detention center and ignored multiple warnings to leave. Prosecutors later indicted Democratic New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver in early June for allegedly assaulting and obstructing immigration officers amid the chaotic scene involving Baraka.
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