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Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva says federal agents fired pepper spray at her and others protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Operation in Arizona.
In a video posted on social media Friday, Grijalva said about 40 federal officers, most of them masked, arrived in multiple vehicles to raid Tucson’s Taco Giro, where a large group of protesters had gathered across the street.
There, “he was sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent” and “pushed around by others,” she said.
She also posted footage of a heavily armored officer firing pepper spray at her and others in the crowd as she approaches the agents and repeatedly tells them “you need to get out.” In the footage, a pepper bullet is also seen hitting his feet.
Grijalva, who was recently took the oath of office House Speaker Mike Johnson, 50 days after winning a special election for a House seat in Arizona, said only one official was “trying to talk to me in any kind of civilized tone” when he introduced himself as a member of Congress.
“I wasn’t actually being aggressive, I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress,” she said. “I can only imagine if they would treat me the same way they’re treating everyone else.”
According to federal officials, the raid was conducted in connection with a years-long investigation into allegations of immigration and tax violations.
At least 190 people in the area were charged with immigration-related crimes within the past week, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona. Most of these cases involved people who were accused of entering the country without legal permission.
In a joint statement, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz said officers used “disproportionate use of force” to push back the crowd.
“Smoke grenades and pepper balls against the public, including our own representative Adelita Grijalva, are not appropriate and cannot be tolerated,” he wrote.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin disputed the congresswoman’s account.
“If his claims were true, it would be a medical miracle,” she said in an emailed statement. Independent“But that’s not true, He was not pepper sprayed,”
According to McLaughlin, Grijalva “was around someone who was pepper sprayed because they were obstructing and assaulting law enforcement.”
“Two law enforcement officers were seriously injured by this mob, including Representative Adelita Grijalva,” he said.
“Representing yourself as a ‘member of Congress’ does not give you the right to obstruct law enforcement,” McLaughlin said.
The Trump administration has intensified the president’s mass deportation campaign with sweeping immigration enforcement operations across the country, resulting in thousands of arrests, largely targeting people who Never convicted of any crime.
“The biggest problem we have in this community is that we have Trump, who has no regard for any due process, for the rule of law, for the Constitution,” Grijalva said Friday. “They’re literally making people disappear from the streets.”
The Trump administration has dispatched federal agents to Democratic-led states and cities following a wave of protests against Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, leading to ICE raids and mass arrests inside courthouses and operations targeting thousands of people across the country.
Federal agents under pressure from Trump in Chicago Authorities were barred from firing rubber bullets, tear gas and other chemical weapons at protesters and journalists after a lawsuit by press associations and religious leaders accused “a pattern of excessive brutality”.
The lawsuit accused agents of firing tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd at close range without warning, because unstable scene It emerged from protests against immigration raids in neighborhoods around Chicago.