Journalist turned Democratic candidate charged with assault over anti-ICE protests in Chicago

https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/10/29/17/42/Protest-outside-of-the-Broadview-IL-ICE-processing-facility-nppae81k.jpeg?width=1200&auto=webp&crop=3%3A2

A progressive Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives and several other Chicago officials are facing federal charges stemming from protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility that has emerged as a flashpoint for demonstrations against Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Kat Abughazaleh, a former journalist now running for a House seat in Illinois, is charged with conspiracy to impede or injure an ICE office and assault.

The grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses Abughazaleh and five other defendants, some of whom are involved in Chicago politics, of banging “aggressively” on a federal agent’s car, forcing the officer to drive at an “extremely slow rate of speed,” and etching the word “PIG” on the vehicle.

The charges — among the most severe yet against protesters under Trump’s Department of Justice — carry prison sentences of up to six years in prison for conspiracy and eight years for assault, if convicted.

“This is a political prosecution and a gross attempt to silence dissent, a right protected under the First Amendment,” Abughazaleh said on social media after the indictment was unsealed.

The Trump administration has sought to “criminalize protest and punish anyone who speaks out against them,” said Abughazaleh, who is vowing to fight the “unjust charges” against them.

Abughazaleh, 26, formerly worked for right-wing media watchdog Media Matters before entering the House race for Illinois’ 9th district, which encompasses parts of Chicago and its suburbs.

She has joined hundreds of demonstrators outside the Broadview ICE detention center as the Trump administration surged federal law enforcement officers and the National Guard into Illinois.

Videos of her interactions with officers at the scene — including incidents where she is shoved to the ground and beat in the face with a baton — have been shared widely across social media, including by the Department of Homeland Security.

In one video from September 19, a masked, heavily armed and armed officer in military fatigues is seen grabbing Abughazaleh before throwing her to the ground.

“Individuals and groups impeding ICE operations are siding with vicious cartels, human traffickers, and violent criminals,” DHS wrote in response on X.

In another video from September 26, Abughazaleh and dozens other protesters are seen holding on to the front of an SUV as it inches into the crowd standing on the street outside the Broadview facilities.

“At the Broadview ICE facility, an ICE agent tried to run dozens of protesters over with an SUV as we walked on a public crosswalk,” she wrote at the time. “He kept driving for about a full football field until ICE barraged us with pepper balls.”

That incident appears to be the one at the center of the charges against her.

The indictment — which also names Cook County board candidate Cat Sharp and Democratic committeeman Michael Rabbitt — claims that the group “conspired with one another and others, known and unknown, to prevent by force, intimidation and threat” to “injure his property so as to interrupt, hinder and impede him in the discharge of his official duties.”

Abughazaleh placed her “hands on the hood” and “braced her body and hands against the vehicle while remaining directly in the path of the vehicle, hindering and impeding” the officer behind the wheel, according to the indictment.

Sharp called the charges “ludicrous.”

“This is a scary moment,” she said in a statement.

“But I want you to know that I am confident that a jury of my peers will see these charges for exactly for what they are — another effort by the Trump administration to frighten people out of participating in protest and exercising their First Amendment rights,” she said.

Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who has protested alongside Abughazaleh outside the Broadview facility and is also running for the congressional seat currently held by Rep. Jan Schkowsky, condemned the indictment against his rival.

“The only people engaged in violent and dangerous behavior at Broadview have been ICE,” he said.

State Sen. Laura Fine, who is also running against Biss and Abughazaleh, called the charges “partisan and unethical.”

“This unjust prosecution is an attempt to intimidate and silence those who stand up for their rights and beliefs,” Fine said. “It’s an attack on anyone sickened by masked men roaming our streets and shoving our neighbors into unmarked cars. It’s a threat to everyone willing to call this what it is: creeping tyranny.”

The charges follow weeks of demonstrations across the Chicago area and daily scenes of masked officers slamming people to the ground and engulfing neighborhoods with tear gas despite a court order that blocks ICE and border patrol agents from indiscriminate use of force against protesters and members of the press.

A federal judge has issued a court order prohibiting officers from using riot control weapons like tear gas and pepper balls without warning. The order also specifically blocks officers from firing munitions that “strike the head, neck, groin, spine, or female breast, or striking any person with a vehicle,” as well as “pulling or shoving a person to the ground, tackling, or body slamming” demonstrators who aren’t harming others.