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DOJ indicts a congressional candidate in Chicago
Kat Abughazaleh described her indictment as “a political prosecution.”
Cameron Peters is a staff editor at Vox.
Welcome to The Logoff: A federal grand jury in Illinois has indicted six people, including a Democratic congressional candidate, for participating in a September protest outside an ICE facility near Chicago.
What happened? The indictment charges six people, including two local elected officials and Kat Abughazaleh, a Democrat running for Congress on Chicago’s North Shore, with conspiring to interfere with and forcibly impeding a federal agent outside of an ICE facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview.
The indictment alleges that, among other actions, the people charged “physically hindered and impeded Agent A and the Government Vehicle such that Agent A was forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators.” Video of the confrontation posted to X by Abughazaleh shows protesters chanting and attempting to block the car.
What’s the context? Since early September, the greater Chicago area has faced an especially brutal immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, resulting in headlines like “Border Patrol agents under fire for allegedly disrupting children’s Halloween parade.”
Protests against the crackdown have often centered on the Broadview ICE facility, and peaceful protesters — including Abughazaleh and members of the clergy — have repeatedly been assaulted and tear-gassed by federal agents. Such tactics have been under increasing legal scrutiny; this week, a Border Patrol official was told to appear in court daily as a judge scrutinizes use of force by agents.
Why does this matter? This indictment is the latest in an alarming trend of protesters, including elected officials, being targeted for prosecution by the Trump administration — at the same time that federal immigration agents have functionally been placed above the law.
In May, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested outside an ICE facility, and Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was later charged with forcibly impeding an officer; my colleague Ian Millhiser described the McIver indictment as possibly “the most anti-democratic thing [Trump has] done since January 6.”
And with that, it’s time to log off…
Hi readers, bear with me here: This is a less cheerful closing note than we often try for in the Logoff, but it’s important. Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica this week, killing at least seven and doing billions of dollars in damage. It’s one of the strongest storms ever recorded, and recovery will be a long, difficult process.
If you feel the urge to help, my colleague Sara Herschander wrote a sharp, useful piece about how to do the most good. She’s collected a list of trustworthy, effective organizations to support that will help Jamaica, Haiti, and other impacted countries recover now and in the months and years to come. You can find it here. Thanks for reading, have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.
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