Congressional Candidate Given Advice for Not Getting ‘Met With Severe Force’ by ICE – Twitchy

September 20, 2025

Kat Abughazaleh says she’s a former journalist who published pieces for Media Matters for America and Mother Jones. She’s also running for Congress, “because we deserve Democrats who actually do something.” Abughazaleh actually does stuff, such as obstructing ICE. The New Republic ran a piece on her Friday under the headline, “I’m a Congressional Candidate. I Was Assaulted by ICE.”

As I told @newrepublic, “Once last week, twice today, ICE has picked me up and thrown me on the ground. Honestly, it doesn’t compare to what our neighbors who are trapped inside the Broadview processing facility are going through. They’re committing crimes against humanity…

— Kat Abughazaleh (@KatAbughazaleh) September 20, 2025

The New Republic reports:

On Friday, Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old Democratic U.S. House candidate in Illinois’s 9th congressional district, was thrown forcefully to the ground by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent at a protest outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. The incident garnered widespread attention after Abughazaleh shared the footage online.

Abughazaleh, a New Republic contributor, was among a crowd demonstrating outside the facility, which is being used in a controversial immigration enforcement operation underway in Illinois. Ostensibly a “processing facility” intended to hold detainees for no more than 12 hours at a time, the center has reportedly held detainees “for days or even weeks,” Abughazaleh said in a recent YouTube video. Protesters have gathered weekly outside the facility and on Friday were reportedly met with severe force: They were tackled, detained, tear-gassed, and pepper-sprayed by ICE agents, who were masked and clad in tactical gear.

First, the editor cautions against any reports of protesters being tear-gassed, particularly after a photo of protesters burning a flag outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland went viral with the caption that they were being tear-gassed. It was actually an officer with a small fire extinguisher.