Arizona congresswoman says she was ‘pepper sprayed’ at protest against ICE | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
Arizona congresswoman Adelita Grijalva said she was “sprayed in the face” during a protest against a federal immigration raid at a Mexican restaurant in Tucson on Friday.
One Video taken after the incident Grijalva said he joined a group of protesters gathered outside the “mom-and-pop” restaurant Taco Giro in Tucson. Grijalva said he visits every week. Once there, he said, they “stopped” a fleet of dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, many wearing masks.
Grijalva said protesters were “afraid of taking people without due process.”
A second video shared from Grijalva’s official account on social media demonstrations A chaotic confrontation between federal agents in tactical gear and protesters carrying anti-ICE signs. Grijalva, a progressive Democratic congressman who has been a harsh critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, is seen approaching officers, urging them to “get out” and coughing. An agent armed with a spray can order the group to “get out of the way.”
In the video clip shot from another angle, a bullet lands behind Grijalva, sending a mist of aerosol at the congresswoman’s feet as she steps toward an officer.
“When I identified myself as a Congressman and asked for more information, I was pushed aside and pepper sprayed,” he wrote.
DHS said in a statement that immigration agents did not target the congressman.
“If his claims were true, this would be a medical miracle,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. “But that’s not true. He wasn’t pepper sprayed. He was near someone.” it was Pepper spray was used while attacking and obstructing law enforcement officers.”
McLaughlin said two officers were “severely injured” during the confrontation.
“Just because someone identifies themselves as a ‘Congressman’ does not give you the right to obstruct the enforcement of the law,” he added, promising “more information to come.”
Special agents as well as officers from the agency’s homeland security investigations “executed 16 search warrants” in southern Arizona as part of a “year-long investigation into immigration and tax violations,” ICE spokesman Fernando Burgos said in a statement. It was stated that many people were detained during the operation.
In a video shot shortly after the incident, Grijalva said he came to the scene because he believed “it was important for me to see what was going on here.”
“I was literally not being aggressive, I was asking for an explanation, which is my right as a member of Congress,” he said, adding: “I can only imagine if they would treat me that way, how they would treat everyone else.”
One joint statementTucson mayor Regina Romero and vice mayor Lane Santa Cruz, both Democrats, said the enforcement operation in Tucson “quickly escalated into violence against the public.”
“Their disproportionate use of force, smoke grenades and pepper spray against the public, including our own Representative Adelita Grijalva, is unjustified and cannot be tolerated,” they wrote, encouraging bystanders to share video and photos of the incident for “possible investigation and follow-up.”
Arizona senator Ruben Gallego voiced his support for Grijalva: Writing to X: “Tear-spraying a sitting member of Congress is shameful, unacceptable, and certainly not something we voted for. Period.”
Grijalva was elected to Congress in September and won a special election to fill the seat vacated by his father’s death. But he wasn’t sworn in as a member of Congress until last month, after the House returned from a weeklong recess during the federal government shutdown.
