Congressional candidate and digital creator Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh vowed Wednesday to fight federal conspiracy charges stemming from an immigration protest last month, saying the case reflects a broader fight against the Trump administration’s arrests of undocumented immigrants.
“For speaking up for these people and against this administration’s cruel policies, I have been federally indicted,” Abughazaleh told a throng of media members shortly after pleading not guilty to the charges at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. “I have been charged with conspiracy for protesting with others. But expressing your First Amendment rights is not a conspiracy, and dissent is not a crime.”
Abughazaleh, 26, who is running for the 9th Congressional District seat, was indicted last month along with four other Democrats who participated in the protests — Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, 29, 45th Ward Democratic committeeman Michael Rabbit, 62, Oak Park Trustee Brian Straw, 38, and Andre Martin, 27, originally of Providence, Rhode Island, who is Abughazaleh’s deputy campaign manager.
Joselyn Walsh, 31, of Chicago, was the sixth person charged. Walsh’s attorney said she had no personal connection to her five co-defendants.
All six pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to federal charges of conspiring to block a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent from entering ICE’s processing facility in west suburban Broadview during one of a string of protests that occurred outside the two-story building in September.
According to the 11-page indictment, the group surrounded an ICE vehicle outside the Broadview facility during a Sept. 26 protest and “banged aggressively” on the vehicle’s side and back windows, hood and doors before they “crowded together in the front and side of the Government Vehicle and pushed against the vehicle to hinder and impede its movement.”
Prosecutors allege the protesters scratched the vehicle’s body, broke a side mirror and a rear windshield wiper, and etched the word “PIG” into the paint.
The indictment includes the conspiracy count, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison, as well as several other counts of impeding a federal officer, each punishable by up to one year in federal prison.
The charges have been met by accusations that the Department of Justice under Republican President Donald Trump was prosecuting free speech and trying to punish political opponents.
Before all six defendants appeared for their arraignment in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Heather McShain at Dirksen, dozens of protesters gathered under the red sculpted arches in Federal Plaza across the street, chanting “fascist ICE has got to go!” and other slogans in support of those who were indicted.
“We support the Broadview Six!” protesters chanted at one point.
Sharp appeared briefly and hugged supporters.
“They’re doing anything possible to distract, to divide, to attack,” Chicago Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, for whom Sharp has served as chief of staff, said. “The people will continue to show up every single time.”
During Wednesday’s lengthy arraignment proceedings, Abughazaleh sat quietly at one of the three defense tables, occasionally flashing a smile at onlookers. As with the other defendants, she spoke only briefly to acknowledge she understood her rights.
Most of the hearing was routine. At one point, however, Straw’s attorney, Christopher Parente, lodged a largely symbolic objection over his client having to turn in his passport, calling him a “boring suburban dad” and saying his whole reason for going to the protest in the first place included objecting to the government checking people’s passports and papers.
Parente said it wasn’t fair for Straw “to sit here now and ask him to turn his passport over to the government for no reason other than they think they can,” adding that “landscapers arrested by ICE cannot stand up to the government.”
“Mr. Straw can, and your Honor can, too,” Parente said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg said the passport was about bond conditions, not about what ICE is doing on the streets, and that defendants have turned in their passports “in every case I’ve had for 19 years.”
After McShain decided Straw did not have to turn in his passport, Mecklenburg said she’d drop the requirement for all defendants to ensure Straw was not receiving special treatment.
All six defendants were released on their own recognizance and were not required to post any money for bond.
After the hearing, Abughazaleh’s attorney, Josh Herman, blasted the indictment as a politically motivated farce that attempts to turn “a protest into a criminal conspiracy.” He said the alleged crime boiled down to trying to “force an ICE agent to drive slowly to work.”
“Why are the people running for office at the top of the indictment?” Herman asked. “This is an attempt to tag them with things that other people may or may not have done.”
After reading her statement to reporters, typed on her phone, Abughazaleh left the courthouse and crossed Dearborn Street to Federal Plaza amid cheers from a few dozen supporters and people singing protest songs.
She told reporters she was feeling “even more determined” in her political campaign, given the circumstances, calling the charges against her “the exact type of lawfare and unjust indictments that we expected from this administration.”
“I’m not sure I expected to see my name on the indictment, certainly not this year, but it’s not a surprise,” Abughazaleh said.
Abughazaleh — also known around the internet as “Kat Abu” — has made a name for herself nationally with TikTok videos and on podcasts by blasting veteran Democrats for not doing enough to combat Trump. She is among a crowded field running to replace U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in the 9th Congressional District, which covers part of Chicago’s Far North Side, as well as several north and northwest suburbs.
She has been a frequent participant in protests at the Broadview ICE facility and has made her presence there a key component of her campaign. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, another candidate for the 9th District seat, has also attended the protests. He was not charged.
A video of the incident described in the indictment has been widely circulated online. It shows the immigration agent’s black SUV rolling slowly through a crowd of people as they chant, “up, up with liberation, down, down with deportation!” and other slogans. Abughazaleh is briefly visible wearing a white T-shirt and chanting near the vehicle’s left passenger door, among others, trying to block its movement.
Other protesters were seen banging on the hood and windows of the SUV and slowly backing up as it moved down Harvard Street toward the processing center amid cries of “shame!” The sounds of whistles and thrown plush toys that lodged on the vehicle’s windshield and hood could also be heard and seen.
As the vehicle made it into the parking lot, the sound of pepper spray balls being shot by federal agents could be heard on the video, and the protesters scattered as they exploded around them.
Meanwhile, in another video from a different protest last month, Abughazaleh could be seen being picked up and thrown to the ground by federal agents.
After Wednesday’s court hearing, her attorney indicated she has not returned to protest in Broadview since the indictment.
If she were to return, Herman said, he’d be concerned “that ICE would beat her up again.”
