Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh indicted over protests outside Chicago-area ICE facility

Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive Democrat running for Congress, has been indicted on federal charges stemming from protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago area.

Abughazaleh, 26, is one of six people charged in the indictment. She faces two charges for allegedly conspiring to “hinder and impede” an ICE agent who was driving to an ICE facility in Broadview, Ill., a location that has been the site of frequent conflicts between protesters and federal immigration officers in recent weeks.

According to the indictment, Abughazaleh and the other people charged “conspired with one another” through “force, intimidation, and threat” to prevent the agent from performing his duties. The document goes on to detail how the group stood in the way of the agent’s vehicle, forcing them to drive “an extremely slow rate of speed” and “banged aggressively” on the vehicle’s windows and hood.

Abughazaleh responded to the charges in a video on social media.

“This is a political prosecution and gross attempt to silence dissent, a right protected under the First Amendment,” she said. “That’s why I’m going to fight these unjust charges.”

Before turning to politics, Abughazaleh gained a large online following through her videos criticizing conservative media. In March, she announced that she was running to represent Illinois’s Ninth Congressional District in the House of Representatives, joining a crowded Democratic field vying to replace longtime incumbent Democrat Jan Schakowsky in the seat.

She quickly became one of the most prominent members of a group of young progressive Democrats who are deeply critical of the party establishment and unapologetic about their left-wing views.

“While current Democratic leadership might be fine cowering to Trump, I’m not,” she said in her campaign announcement video.

Abughazaleh has been a regular presence at protests outside the Broadview ICE facility, chronicling the clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement — and some of the physical injuries she suffered during those conflicts — for her hundreds of thousands of online followers. One of her online videos features an incident that matches the date and description of the events in the indictment.

In the video, Abughazaleh and dozens of other protesters are seen trying to push back against a law enforcement vehicle that is slowly progressing through the crowd of demonstrators.