Illinois Democrat Running for Congress Indicted Over Chicago Anti-ICE Protest

A federal grand jury has indicted Kat Abughazaleh, a Democrat running to represent Illinois’s Ninth Congressional District, over a confrontation in late September outside the Chicago Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) command center.

The indictment, filed on Oct. 23 and unsealed on Oct. 29, accuses Abughazaleh and five other protesters of “hindering and impeding” an ICE officer by blocking an agency vehicle during a protest “on or about September 26” in Broadview, a western suburb of Chicago.

According to the court filing, the protesters “banged aggressively on the [vehicle’s] side and back windows, hood, and other vehicle body parts” and “pushed against the vehicle to hinder and impede its movement.”

The indictment also alleges that the group scratched the vehicle, etched the word “pig” into its surface, and broke a mirror and a windshield wiper.

An ICE agent inside the car was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed” to avoid injuring any of the protesters, the indictment alleges.

Each of the six defendants faces one count of conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer and one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding a federal officer—charges that carry maximum prison sentences of six and eight years, respectively.

Abughazaleh, who is seeking to replace outgoing Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), made opposition to ICE operations in Chicago a central theme of her campaign in March.

The 26-year-old Democrat has held multiple news conferences criticizing the agency’s crowd control tactics and demanding public oversight of the heavily secured Broadview facility. She has also personally joined protests there, with one video showing her being thrown to the ground by an ICE officer after trying to block a vehicle during a separate encounter not related to the incident cited in the indictment.

On Oct. 29, she called the charges against her and fellow protesters “a political prosecution and a gross attempt at silencing dissent.”

“Since I and others have exercised our First Amendment rights, ICE has hit, dragged, thrown, shot with pepper balls, and teargassed hundreds of protesters,” she said in a video posted on X.

The indictment comes amid Operation Midway Blitz, a Department of Homeland Security initiative announced in early September targeting “criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois.” The operation is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to combat crimes committed by illegal immigrants in large urban centers where so-called “sanctuary” policies limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

The Broadview facility has become a center of confrontations in this campaign, drawing protesters from the greater Chicago area as well as other parts of the country. The building is now heavily fortified, with boarded windows and concrete barriers installed after multiple threats of violence against federal officers amid growing tensions.

Abughazaleh is one of 18 Democratic candidates competing for the party’s nomination to succeed Schakowsky. The primary election is scheduled for March 2026.