A small-stakes congressional campaign is suddenly playing out in a federal courtroom. Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old social-media influencer running in Illinois’s 9th District, has been indicted on serious charges after a protest outside the Broadview ICE facility near Chicago — and the fallout could reshape both her candidacy and the broader conversation about protest tactics at contentious sites.
According to the indictment, Abughazaleh and five others are accused of conspiring to “prevent by force” an ICE officer from performing official duties and of assaulting or impeding that officer while he was on duty. Those are not garden-variety misdemeanor protest charges: the conspiracy count can carry up to six years in prison, and the assault charge up to eight years.
NEWS: Federal prosecutors indict Kat Abughazaleh, congressional candidate, county board candidate Cat Sharp and Dem committeeman Michael Rabbitt over September Broadview protest pic.twitter.com/tJ6msMX2MO
— Gregory Royal Pratt (@royalpratt) October 29, 2025
Federal prosecutors say the group banged on a government vehicle, etched the word “PIG” into the car’s body, and damaged a side mirror and wiper while aggressively pushing against it. Video of the day shows protesters surrounding and striking the vehicle — footage Abughazaleh herself posted and later used to narrate a different version of events.
Meet Kat Abughazaleh, she’s running for Congress (IL-09) that’s her in the white shirt
And she’s committing a federal crime by impeding federal agts from doing their job
I’m calling on @Sec_Noem to submit a criminal referral to @TheJusticeDept on her
(RP) if you agree 👇 pic.twitter.com/990PND02CA
— @Chicago1Ray 🇺🇸 (@Chicago1Ray) September 27, 2025
There are competing narratives. In her social-media posts, Abughazaleh portrayed herself as a pedestrian in a crosswalk nearly run down by agents, and she alleged that ICE used pepper balls on the crowd. Other clips, captured during a separate demonstration a week earlier, show Abughazaleh being physically moved away from a vehicle by ICE officers — at one point tumbling to the pavement after blocking the path of an SUV. Prosecutors argue the conduct crossed the line from civil disobedience into a coordinated criminal effort to obstruct agents carrying out their duties.
IL: Happening now: Federal agents and officers forcibly move a protester blocking the exit of the processing facility here in Broadview—An agent loses a tear gas canister, you see the protester pick it up and toss it in our direction—The protester was then apprehended and taken… pic.twitter.com/1EglkGLXV8
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) September 19, 2025
That division — performative protest versus criminal interference — is the legal and political hinge of the case. Abughazaleh has framed the indictment as “political prosecution,” a First Amendment assault meant to chill dissent.
The Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi, by contrast, had warned in the aftermath that the government would pursue the most serious charges available against protesters who “violently” obstruct law enforcement at such facilities. The indictment appears to be the federal follow-through on that promise.
I have been charged in a federal indictment sought by the Department of Justice.
This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win. pic.twitter.com/szOSZa1h3z
— Kat Abughazaleh (@KatAbughazaleh) October 29, 2025
