A former journalist and present Democratic congressional candidate in Illinois was indicted final week, together with 5 others, over protests they attended in opposition to immigration officers.
Kat Abughazaleh, the 26-year-old congressional candidate, and different protesters had been indicted Oct. 23 by a particular federal grand jury, and are accused of blocking autos exterior of a federal immigration processing facility in Broadview final month.
The indictment accuses Abughazaleh and the opposite defendants ― Andre Martin, Michael Rabbitt, Catherine Sharp, Brian Straw and Joselyn Walsh ― of conspiring with each other after they “physically hindered and impeded” the car of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent throughout a Sept. 26 protest exterior of the processing facility.
The agent was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators,” the indictment stated.
Martin, one of many defendants, works on Abughazaleh’s marketing campaign as a discipline director.
Eileen T. Meslar/ Chicago Tribune through Getty Pictures
Video posted by Abughazaleh on social media that day reveals her and different protesters standing in entrance of the agent’s car, unarmed and chanting “Down, down with deportation.” Protesters banged on the car’s hood, and some stuffed animals had been thrown onto it. Abughazaleh stated she and fellow protesters had been strolling “on a public crosswalk.”
“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 posted. “He kept driving for about a full football field until ICE barraged us with pepper balls.”
The indictment accuses the demonstrators of banging ”aggressively on the Authorities Car’s facet and again home windows, hood, and different car physique elements; crowded collectively within the entrance and facet of the Authorities Car and pushed in opposition to the car to hinder and impede its motion; scratched the physique of the Authorities Car, together with etching a message into the physique of the car, particularly the phrase ‘PIG;’ broke one of many Authorities Car’s facet mirrors; and broke a rear windshield wiper off the Authorities Car.”
Abughazaleh is being represented by Chicago Legal professional Josh Herman, who advised HuffPost in an announcement that the indictment is a “political prosecution that tries to turn dissent and First Amendment opposition to the Trump administration’s cruel policies into a conspiracy.”
“Kat has steadfastly opposed those policies and she will fight these charges with the same principled determination,” Herman added.
Abughazaleh had a confrontation with ICE brokers on the facility only one week earlier when a masked agent was seen on video forcefully grabbing and violently throwing her to the bottom throughout a protest.
Throughout the identical protest on Sept. 19, federal brokers deployed tear gasoline and fired pepper balls at demonstrations. Abughazaleh advised HuffPost on the time that one agent advised her, “Your First Amendment rights are on the sidewalk.”
In a video assertion posted to social media on Wednesday, Abughazaleh stated she’s “not backing down.”
“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 model,” Abughazaleh stated within the video.
“And because Chicago doesn’t back down from bullies in masks who tear gas our neighborhoods, this administration has resorted to weaponizing the federal justice system to scare us into silence,” she continued. “But we’re not going to be silent. The Trump administration wants you to be afraid of speaking out against it and its anti-democratic power grabs. And there are plenty of reasons to be afraid right now, but we have to overcome that fear.”
Abughazaleh stated immigration officers and the Trump administration are scared and know what they’re doing is unsuitable.
“This case targets our rights to protest, speak freely, and associate with anyone who disagrees with the government,” she stated. “And while we have seen the unhinged and unlawful tactics this administration has used against the American public, it’s important to remember they’re doing this because they are scared, they are wrong, and they know they are on the wrong side of history.”
