Chicago, Illinois - Congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh has responded to getting hit with federal charges by Donald Trump's Department of Justice after joining an anti-ICE protest in Chicago.

"This is a political prosecution and a gross attempt to silence dissent, a right protected under the First Amendment," Abughazaleh said in a video shared on social media.

"This case is a major push by the Trump administration to criminalize protest and punish anyone who speaks out against them," she continued.

"That's why I'm going to fight these unjust charges."

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According to the indictment, the 26-year-old along with five other individuals "conspired with one another and others, known and unknown, to prevent by force, intimidation, and threat, Agent A, a United States law enforcement officer, from discharging the duties of his office."

The DOJ goes on to say the six protesters "banged aggressively" on the agent's vehicle and gathered in front of it to "hinder and impede its movement." They are also accused of scratching the word "PIG" onto the vehicle.

Abughazaleh, the indictment alleges, "with her hands on the hood braced her body and hands against the vehicle while remaining directly in the path of the vehicle, hindering and impeding Agent A and the vehicle from proceeding" to the ICE facility.

The charges stem from a September protest outside the Broadview ICE facility near Chicago in which Abughazaleh took part.

"As I and others exercised our First Amendment rights, ICE has hit, dragged, thrown, shot with pepper balls, and teargassed hundreds of protesters, myself included. Simply because we had the gall to say masked men abducting our neighbors and terrorizing our community cannot be the new normal," she said in her video address.

Trump has authorized federal troops to Chicago – despite fierce local opposition – in a bid to escalate his mass deportation efforts. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the National Guard deployment to the area, with the case set to go before the Supreme Court.

Abughazaleh is running in the 2026 Democratic primary to replace outgoing Representative Jan Schakowsky in Illinois' ninth congressional district.