A woke Gen Z activist and progressive congressional candidate in Illinois, along with five other anti-ICE protestors, were indicted on federal charges this week for their involvement in a violent immigration protest in Chicago.
Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh, 26, and five other protesters — some of whom have ties to local politics — face charges for allegedly participating in an attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicle outside a suburban Chicago ICE facility last month.
Abughazaleh, a progressive Democrat, has branded herself a “Gen Z influencer” and is running for Congress in Illinois’ 9th District. She is accused of conspiracy to impede or injure an ICE officer while on duty in Broadview, Ill., according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.
The charges stem from an incident outside the Broadview ICE facility on Sept. 26. A mob of protestors attempted to block an ICE vehicle from driving into a federal immigration facility.
The indictment also alleges that Abughazaleh moved to the front of the government vehicle during the confrontation, pressing her hands against the hood and using her body to block its path, Fox News Digital reported.
“No one is above the law, and no one has the right to obstruct it,” Todd Blanche, deputy attorney general, said in a statement Wednesday. “The Department of Justice will never tolerate such conduct and will continue to hold accountable anyone who seeks to impede lawful federal operations.”
Footage from Sept. 26 features Abughazaleh bracing her body against an ICE vehicle as protesters surround it.
The protestors can be heard chanting “Down, down with deportation. Up, up with liberation” and pounding on the car’s side, back windows and hood.
The six individuals were all indicted on two counts: conspiracy to impede or injure a federal law enforcement officer, and forcibly impeding, intimidating, or interfering with a federal law enforcement officer while engaged in official duties, the National Review reported.
If convicted, the conspiracy count carries a sentence of up to six years in prison, and the assault count carries up to an eight-year sentence.
The group “banged aggressively” on the vehicle and “pushed against the vehicle to hinder and impede its movement,” according to the indictment. The word “PIG” was etched into the vehicle, and protestors also damaged a side mirror and the back windshield wiper.
During another protest on Sept. 19, Abughazaleh, who was wearing a mask, is forcibly removed by federal agents and falls down after blocking the driveway outside the Broadview ICE facility. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security railed against her after the video went viral, Fox News Digital reported.
“Dishonest, desperate and demonizing law enforcement to try to get 5 minutes on MSNBC and some fundraising cash,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital in a statement after Abughazaleh criticized Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference on Oct. 3.
McLaughlin accused Abughazaleh of putting “law enforcement at risk” in her pursuit to “obstruct justice” before she was shoved to the ground during the Sept. 19 protest.
During that press conference, Abughazaleh described the scene outside Broadview as a “war zone” where the government is “waging war on peaceful protesters.” She demanded “transparency” regarding “what is happening behind those boarded-up windows.”
Abughazaleh also went viral earlier this year for questioning why it’s controversial that illegal immigrants should have access to taxpayer-funded healthcare. She is also a Palestinian and former journalist for the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America and Mother Jones, the Daily Mail reported.
She took to her X account to post about the indictment, saying “This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win.”
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
Abughazaleh also signed off a video interview when journalist Tara Palmeri plays the video and asks her about the charges and the seriousness of the indictment.
“I’m not speaking to the specifics of anything that’s in the indictment right now,” she said in a Zoom interview with Palmeri’s show, The Red Letter.
As Palmeri continued, Abughazaleh leaves the chat without saying goodbye.
“Did she just sign off?” Palmeri asked after not seeing her in the Zoom call. “I’m so confused. I’m sorry. I don’t know what just happened. I’ve never had that happen before.”
Abughazaleh is among the top candidates in a crowded 13-way Democratic primary for Illinois’ 9th District to succeed Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., 81, who is retiring, Fox News Digital reported. The district represents the northern Chicago suburbs.
The other defendants include Andre Martin, described in the indictment as an associate who worked for or with her; Michael Rabbit, a Democratic committee person in Chicago’s 45th Ward; Catherine Sharp, a candidate for the Cook County Board of Commissioners; and Brian Straw and Joselyn Walsh, who are listed as Illinois residents, Fox News Digital reported.
Their arraignment has been scheduled for Nov. 5. Court records show the indictment was handed up by a grand jury last week but unsealed by a federal judge on Wednesday, The Hill reported.
Sharp said in a statement to The Hill that she’s confident a jury of her peers will “see these charges for exactly what they are — another effort by the Trump administration to frighten people out of participating in protest and exercising their First Amendment rights.” Her attorney, Molly Armour, called the charges “ludicrous.”
Straw, a member of the Village Board in suburban Oak Park, called the charges “baseless” and said he would fight them while continuing to stand with immigrants, per The Hill.
U.S. District Judge April Perry has been assigned the case. Perry is also presiding over a separate case involving President Donald Trump’s efforts to deploy the National Guard to Chicago.
Perry blocked the deployment of troops, saying there was no evidence of a “danger of rebellion” in the state after the Trump administration had requested an emergency stay, Fox News Digital reported.
