A sitting Oak Park village trustee has been indicted on federal conspiracy charges alongside several other local political figures over an early-morning protest at the Broadview ICE facility last month.
Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw was one of six indicted on conspiracy to impede the work of a federal law enforcement officer according to U.S. Northern District of Illinois court documents filed last week. The indictment alleges that Straw and his co-defendants were among a crowd of protestors who blocked, pushed against and banged on a vehicle being driven by a federal officer into ICE’s Broadview Detention facility the morning of Sept. 26.
“It was further part of the conspiracy that Straw joined the crowd at the front of the government vehicle, and with his hands on the hood braced his body and hands against the vehicle while remaining directly in the path of the vehicle, hindering and impeding Agent A and the vehicle from proceeding into the (Broadview facility),” federal prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
The indictment also alleges that protestors scratched the word “PIG” onto the federal vehicle and damaged a side mirror and rear windshield wiper on the vehicle.
Straw provided Wednesday Journal the following comment Wednesday:
“I joined the protests at the Broadview ICE detention facility because of what is happening to our immigrant neighbors: children zip-tied and shoved into vans, mothers pulled from cars on the way to school, neighbors afraid to go to church or work. The Trump Justice Department’s decision to seemingly hand-pick public officials like me for standing up against these inhumane policies will not deter me from fulfilling my oath of office. I will fight these baseless charges, and I will continue to stand with and protect our immigrant neighbors.”
Straw’s co-defendants include Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh — whose name is misspelled several times in the document — a 26-year-old journalist-turned congressional hopeful presently among the leading candidates to be Illinois’ next 9th District U.S. Representative. She responded to the indictment in a social media video posted Wednesday afternoon.
“This is a political prosecution and a gross attempt to silence dissent, a right protected under the first amendment,” she said. “I’m not backing down. We’re going to win.”
The others charged in the indictment are Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, 45th ward Democratic committeeman Michael Rabbit and two other protestors named Joselyn Walsh and Andre Martin.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge April Perry. A hearing for the co-defendants is expected to be held Nov. 5.
Perry is also presiding over the case which will decide whether or not President Donald Trump can deploy out-of-state National Guard troops to Chicago. Her most recent ruling has blocked the deployment of troops indefinitely.
Straw is one of several Oak Park elected officials who has made repeated visits to protest at the Broadview ICE facility since the federal government began its “Operation Midway Blitz” mass deportation efforts focused on Chicagoland. Several Oak Parkers have been hit with federal court charges tied to impeding federal officers at Broadview protests, including local attorney Scott Sakiyama who was arrested after tailing an ICE vehicle near a local elementary school last week.
The indictment comes as Straw and the rest of Oak Park’s village board work on passing an “ICE free zone” ordinance banning federal immigration agents from operating on village-owned property. Such an ordinance would potentially include collaborations with other governmental agencies like the Oak Park Library, school districts, park district and Oak Park Township to adopt uniform policies, Trustees said last week.
The federal government says it’s arrested more than 1,000 undocumented immigrants in recent months, as federal operations have led to chaotic scenes across the region and allegations that federal agents are illegally violating residents’ rights and racially profiling Latino people and other minorities.
Oak Park already has an immigration sanctuary ordinance on the books that bars village employees from aiding federal immigration investigations, but the trustees’ proposed plan would take those measures a step further.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
