Abughazaleh

Oct. 29 (UPI) — A federal grand jury in Chicago indicted House of Representatives hopeful Kat Abughazaleh for conspiracy and interfering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities.

Abughazaleh, 26, is a progressive candidate who is one of more than a dozen seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 2026 election to represent Illinois’ Ninth Congressional District that is located north of Chicago.

A federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois indicted her and five others on Thursday for impeding an ICE vehicle and agent outside the ICE facility in Broadview, Ill.

“No one is above the law and no one has the right to obstruct it,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

“Federal agents perform dangerous, essential work every single day to enforce out immigration laws and keep our communities safe.”

He said those who “resort to force or intimidation to interfere with that mission … attack not only the agents themselves but the rule of law they represent.”

Abughazaleh called her indictment a “political prosecution and a gross attempt to silence dissent” in a post on X.

“This case is a major push by the Trump administration to criminalize protest and punish anyone who speaks out against them.”

Among Abughazaleh’s indicted co-defendants include those involved local politics.

Catherine Sharp, 29, seeks a seat on the Cook County Board and is the chief of staff to Ald. Andre Vasquez, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Oak Park trustee Brian Straw, 38, and 45th Ward Democratic committee member Michael Rabbit, 62, also are indicted, along with protesters Andre Martin, 27, and Joselyn Walsh, 31.

A sealed court document filed on Thursday accuses Abughazaleh and co-defendants of conspiracy and interfering with the duties of an officer of the United States, which are punishable by up to six years in prison.

They allegedly surrounded an ICE vehicle driven by an agent and hindered its progress as the officer drove forward “at an extremely slow rate of speed” while trying not to injure any of the six defendants.

Prosecutors say Abughazaleh, “with her hands on the hood braced her body and hands against the vehicle while remaining directly in the path of the vehicle.”

The defendants also are accused of etching “Pig” on the side of the ICE vehicle and breaking its side mirrors and rear windshield wiper.

Abughazaleh, et al., have an arraignment hearing scheduled on Nov. 5.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat, currently represents Illinois’ Ninth Congressional District, which includes Evanston along the Lake Michigan shoreline to the east and stretches northwesterly to include Crystal Lake in its far northwestern corner.

Schakowsky is retiring from politics and vacating the seat after finishing her current term.

CHICAGO — A Democratic congressional candidate in Illinois has been indicted for blocking a federal agent’s vehicle during September protests outside an immigration enforcement building in suburban Chicago, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday.

The felony indictment, filed last week by a special grand jury, accuses Kat Abughazaleh and five others of conspiring to impede an officer.

“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 Wednesday in a video posted to BlueSky.

Protesters have been gathering outside the immigration center to oppose enforcement operations in the Chicago area that have led to more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.

Greg Bovino, who is leading Border Patrol efforts in Chicago, was ordered this week by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to brief her every evening about the operations, beginning on Wednesday. It is an unprecedented bid to impose real-time oversight on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the city after weeks of tense encounters and increasingly aggressive tactics by agents.

Federal prosecutors accuse Abughazaleh and others of surrounding a vehicle driven by a federal agent on Sept. 26 and attempting to stop it from entering the facility.

Among the others named in the indictment are a candidate for the Cook County Board, a Democratic ward committeeman and a trustee in suburban Oak Park. The charges accuse all six of conspiring to impede an officer.

Abughazaleh is scheduled to make an initial court appearance next week. A message left with her campaign wasn’t immediately returned. Her attorney called the charges “unjust.”

The indictment said the group banged on the car, pushed against it, broke a mirror and scratched the text “PIG” on the vehicle, the indictment said.

Abughazaleh at one point put her hands on the vehicle’s hood and braced her body against it while staying in its way, the indictment says. The agent was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators,” it says.

Abughazaleh is running in a crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jan Schawkosky.

Protesting the immigration crackdown around Chicago has emerged as a top issue on campaigns in Illinois’ March primary. Elected officials and candidates in the Democratic stronghold have often showed up for demonstrations outside the Broadview federal facility.

“As I and others have exercised our First Amendment rights, ICE has hit, dragged, thrown, shot with pepper balls, and teargassed 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,” Abughazaleh says in the video.

“As scary as all of this is, I have spent my career fighting America’s backslide into fascism,” she says. “I’m not gonna stop now, and I hope you won’t either.”

Tareen and Seewer write for the Associated Press. Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.