CHICAGO (AP) — A Democratic congressional candidate in Illinois has been indicted along with five others over blocking vehicles during protests outside a federal immigration enforcement building in suburban Chicago, according to court documents.
The indictment, filed last week by a special grand jury, accuses Kat Abughazaleh of blocking a federal agent outside the detention center.
“This is a political prosecution and a gross attempt to silence dissent, a right protected under the First Amendment. This case is a major push by the Trump administration to criminalize protest and punish anyone who speaks out against them,” Abughazaleh said in a video posted to BlueSky.
Federal prosecutors accused the group of surrounding a vehicle driven by a federal agent on Sept. 26 and attempting to stop it from entering the facility.
The group banged on the car, pushed against it, broke a mirror and scratched the text “PIG” on the vehicle, the indictment said.
“As I and others have exercised our First Amendment rights, ICE has hit, dragged, thrown, shot with pepper balls, and tear gassed hundreds of protesters, simply because we had the gall to say that masked men coming into our communities, abducting our neighbors, and terrorizing us cannot be our new normal,” she said in the video.
As scary as all of this is, I have spent my career fighting America’s backslide into fascism,” she said. “I’m not gonna stop now, and I hope you won’t either.”
