Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva says federal agents fired peppery spray at her and others during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Arizona.
In a video posted on social media, Grijalva said roughly 40 federal officers, most of them masked, pulled up in several vehicles for raid at Taco Giro in Tucson on Friday.
There, she was âsprayed in the face by a very aggressive agentâ and âpushed around by others,â she said.
Grijalva, who was recently sworn into office by House Speaker Mike Johnson 50 days after winning a special election for a House seat in Arizona, said that only one officer was âtrying to speak to me in any kind of civil toneâ once she introduced herself as a member of Congress.
âI literally was not being aggressive, I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress,â she said. âI just can only imagine if theyâre going to treat me like that, how theyâre treating everyone else.â
The raid was carried out in connection with a years-long investigation into allegations of immigration and tax violations, according to federal officials.
At least 190 people in the area were charged with immigration-related offenses within the last week, according to the U.S. Attorneyâs Office in Arizona. The vast majority of those cases involved people accused of entering the country without legal permission.
The Trump administration has accelerated the presidentâs mass deportation campaign with sweeping immigration enforcement operations across the country, resulting in thousands of arrests, largely targeting people who have never been convicted of any crimes.
âThe biggest problem we have in this community is that we have Trump, who has no regard for any due process, the rule of law, the Constitution,â Grijalva said Friday. âTheyâre literally disappearing people from the streets.â
This is a developing story
