Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona said she was pepper-sprayed and “pushed around” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a raid at a Tucson restaurant on Friday.
In a video statement posted on X, Grijalva said it happened as local Tucsonans gathered to stop a group of roughly 40 ICE agents, many of them masked and in several vehicles, stationed in the middle of a street near a restaurant she frequents.
Grijalva said she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent, pushed around by others.” She added, “I literally was not being aggressive, I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress.”
Department for Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denied Grijalva’s account, saying instead that the congresswoman was “in the vicinity” of another person who was pepper-sprayed as they obstructed and assaulted law enforcement.
“If her claims were true, this would be a medical marvel. But they’re not true. She wasn’t pepper-sprayed,” McLaughlin said.
“Presenting one’s self as a ‘member of Congress’ doesn’t give you the right to obstruct law enforcement,” she added.
McLaughlin also said that two law enforcement officers “were seriously injured” during the incident.
A spokesperson for Tucson Police Department, Ofc. Frank Magos, said that ICE had served a federal search warrant at Taco Giro, a local restaurant on Friday morning, and “federal tactical resources responded to extract federal investigative special agents from the area where community had gathered.”
Federal agents deployed “chemical munitions” and called for emergency support from Tucson police to make their way out of the area, Magos said.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz said in a joint statement Friday that federal special agents had conducted a raid in the city that “rapidly escalated into violence against the public.”
“Under the Trump administration, unidentified federal agents often intentionally wear clothing with vague words like ‘police’ to purposefully confuse the public,” the pair of city 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,” they added.
Grijalva said that she identified herself as a member of Congress, and saw “people directly sprayed,” including press and members of her staff.
“The biggest problem that we have in this community is that we have Trump that has no regard for any due process, the rule of law, the Constitution,” Grijalva said. “They’re literally disappearing people from the streets.”
NBC News has reached out to Grijalva’s office for further comment.
Grijalva was sworn in last month, more than seven weeks after winning a special election for the seat of her late father, Rep. Raul Grijalva, who died earlier this year after representing Arizona’s 7th Congressional District — a border region that extends from Tucson to Yuma and includes Phoenix suburbs.
After her swearing in, Grijalva became the 218th signature on a bipartisan discharge petition to release files related to the case of the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.