Dec. 6 (UPI) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pushed and pepper-sprayed Rep. Adelita Grijalva during an immigration enforcement action outside a Tucson restaurant on Friday, she alleges.
Grijalva, D-Ariz., said she identified herself and was “asking for clarification” after finding about 40 ICE agents and their vehicles in the street outside a restaurant that she frequents, NBC News reported.
The recently elected Congresswoman in a social media post said she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent [and] pushed around by others.”
Grijalva said she was “afraid they were taking people without due process.”
“I literally was not being aggressive,” she added. “I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress.”
A video posted by The Washington Post shows Grijalva telling ICE agents, “Don’t push me,” that they “better get out” and repeatedly yelling, “Let her go.”
The video shows protesters physically engaging with ICE agents, who deployed tear gas and pepper spray. Some pepper balls are seen landing near Grijalva’s feet.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin denied Grijalva’s version of events in a post on X on Friday.
“If her claims were true, this would be a medical marvel, but they’re not true,” McLaughlin said, as reported by CNN.
“She wasn’t pepper-sprayed,” she continued. “She was in the vicinity of someone who was pepper-sprayed as they were obstructing and assaulting law enforcement.”
McLaughlin said two law enforcement officers “were seriously injured by this mob” that Grijalva had joined.
“Presenting one’s self as a member of Congress doesn’t give you the right to obstruct law enforcement,” she added.
Grijalva later told CNN’s Laura Coates, “It’s convenient to them to make it seem as if I was doing anything other than inquiring about what was happening.”
She accused the Trump administration of denying due process for those arrested while “literally disappearing people from the streets.”
She said ICE agents arrested two people, and “We have no idea where they’re going.”
