Arizona congresswoman who waited 7 weeks for Mike Johnson to swear her in says she was pepper sprayed by ICE at a taco joint

Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva said federal agents protesting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Arizona pepper-sprayed her and others.

In a video posted on social media Friday, Grijalva said about 40 federal officers, most wearing masks, arrived in several vehicles to raid Taco Giro in Tucson, where a large group of demonstrators had gathered in the street.

There, he said, he was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent” and “pushed by others.”

He also released footage of a heavily armored police officer pepper-spraying himself and others in the crowd as he approached agents and repeatedly told them “you need to get out.” The footage also shows that his feet were hit by pepper spray.

Grijalva, who was recently sworn into office by House Speaker Mike Johnson 50 days after winning a special election for a House seat in Arizona, said he only “attempted to speak to me in any civil tone” when a staffer identified himself as a member of Congress.

“I wasn’t literally being aggressive, I was asking for an explanation, which is my right as a member of Congress,” he said. “I can only imagine how they would treat me this way, how they would treat everyone else.”

The raid was conducted in connection with a years-long investigation into alleged immigration and tax violations, according to federal officials.

At least 190 people in the area were charged with immigration-related crimes last week, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona. The vast majority of these cases involved people accused of entering the country without legal permission.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Deputy Mayor Lane Santa Cruz said in a joint statement that police officers “used disproportionate force” to push back the crowd.

“Smoke bombs and pepper balls against members of the public, including our representative Adelita Grijalva, cannot be justified or tolerated,” they wrote.

Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin disputed the congressman’s statement.

“If their claims were true, this would be a medical miracle,” he said in an emailed statement. Independent. “But these are not true. He was not pepper sprayed.”

According to McLaughlin, Grijalva “was near someone who was pepper sprayed for obstructing and attacking law enforcement.”

He said that “two law enforcement officers were seriously injured by this mob, which was joined by Representative Adelita Grijalva.”

“Just because a person identifies himself as a ‘Congressman’ does not give you the right to obstruct the enforcement of the law,” McLaughlin said.

The Trump administration has stepped up the president’s mass deportation campaign with sweeping immigration enforcement operations across the country; These operations resulted in thousands of arrests and largely targeted people who had not been convicted of any crime.

“The biggest problem we have in this society is that we have Trump who disregards any due process, the rule of law, and the Constitution,” Grijalva said Friday. “They are literally eliminating people from the streets.”

The Trump administration has swarmed federal agents into Democratic-led states and cities following a wave of protests against Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, fueled by ICE raids and mass arrests at courthouses and targeted operations involving thousands of people across the country.

During Trump’s crackdown in Chicago, federal agents were prevented from firing rubber bullets, tear gas and other chemical munitions at protesters and journalists following a lawsuit filed by press associations and religious leaders accusing officers of a “pattern of extreme brutality.”

The lawsuit accused agents of indiscriminately firing tear gas and pepper balls into crowds and at close range as volatile scenes unfolded at protests against immigration raids in Chicago’s neighborhoods.