Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., said she was “pushed-side and pepper sprayed” by federal immigration agents while on scene at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at an Arizona restaurant on Friday. Grijalva said in a video on X she was at Taco Giro in Tucson to ask for clarification, “which is my right as a member of Congress.”
“[I] was sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent, pushed around by others, when I literally was not being aggressive,” she said. “Once I introduced myself, I assumed that it would be a little calmer. But there was literally only one person that was trying to speak to me in any kind of civil tone, and everyone else was being rude and disrespectful. And I just can only imagine if they’re going to treat me like that, how they’re treating everybody else.”
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Along with herself, Grijalva said she also witnessed members of the press and others being sprayed. Grijalva and two of her staff members still had remnants of what the agents sprayed on them after the raid ended, she said.
In another X post, Grijalva posted video footage of the incident.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement, dismissed Grijalva’s account, claiming she was not pepper sprayed, but was in the “vicinity” of someone who was as “they were obstructing and assaulting law enforcement.”
“If her claims were true, this would be a medical marvel,” McLaughlin wrote, adding, “Presenting one’s self as a “Member of Congress” doesn’t give you the right to obstruct law enforcement.”
Two law enforcement officers were “seriously injured” during the raid, McLaughlin said.
During an interview with CNN anchor Laura Coates on Friday, Grijalva said “It’s convenient to them to make it seem as if I was doing anything other than inquiring about what was happening.”
Tucson Police were also at the site of the raid. Grijalva said they arrived after ICE was already at Taco Giro, and that they were not the aggressors.
An ICE spokesperson told local outlet WSAZ that multiple arrests were made, with an exact number to be released later.
Local response to ICE raid
The police department confirmed that Homeland Security Investigations served a federal search warrant at Taco Giro on Friday. No munitions or force were deployed by Tucson Police Department employees, the agency said.
“After deploying chemical munitions federal agents requested emergency support from TPD to assist in exiting the area,” Tucson police said. “TPD Rapid Response Team (RRT) personnel responded to the location to support a safe environment.”
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz put out a statement together stating that they share the fears in the community created by what they called “Trump’s immoral and inhumane immigration policies.”
“Under the Trump Administration unidentified federal agents often intentionally wear clothing with vague words like “police” to purposefully confuse the public,” the officials said. “Their disproportionate use of force, smoke grenades and pepper balls against the public, including our own Representative Adelita Grijalva, is not justified and cannot be tolerated.”
Grijalva was sworn in just last month, seven weeks after she won a special election to fill the seat her late father, Raul Grijalva, once held.
