Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona said she was pepper-sprayed and “pushed” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a raid at a Tucson restaurant on Friday.
IN video statement published on XGrijalva said it happened when Tucson residents rallied to stop a group of about 40 ICE agents, many of them wearing masks and in multiple vehicles, standing in the middle of the street outside a restaurant she frequented.
Grijalva said she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent who was pushed around by others.” She added: “I was literally not being aggressive, I was asking for clarification of what I have a right to as a member of Congress.”
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin rejected Grijalva's account, saying instead that the congresswoman was “in the vicinity” of another man who was pepper-sprayed when he obstructed and assaulted law enforcement.
“If her claims were true, it would be a medical miracle. But it's not true. She wasn't pepper-sprayed,” McLaughlin said.
“Representing yourself as a ‘Member of Congress’ does not give you the right to interfere with law enforcement,” she added.
McLaughlin also said two law enforcement officers “sustained serious injuries” during the incident.
A spokesman for the Tucson Police Department, Ofc. Frank Magos reported that ICE executed a federal search warrant at a local Taco Giro restaurant Friday morning and “federal tactical resources responded to evacuate federal investigative special agents from the area where the community had gathered.”
Federal agents used “chemical munitions” and called for emergency support from Tucson police to leave the area, Magos said.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz said in a joint statement Friday that federal special agents conducted a raid in the city that “quickly escalated into violence against the public.”
“Under the Trump administration, unidentified federal agents often deliberately wear clothing with vague words such as 'police' to intentionally confuse the public,” two city officials said.
“Their disproportionate use of force, smoke grenades and pepper balls against the public, including our representative Adelita Grijalva, is not justified and cannot be tolerated,” they added.
Grijalva said she posed as a member of Congress and saw people being “directly sprayed,” including the press and members of her staff.
“The biggest problem we have in this community is that we have Trump, who has no respect for any due process, the rule of law and the Constitution,” Grijalva said. “They are literally disappearing 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 to fill her late father's seat. Tail. Raul Grijalva, who died earlier this year after representing Arizona's 7th Congressional District, a border region that stretches from Tucson to Yuma and includes the Phoenix suburbs.
After the oath of office, Grijalva became 218th signature on bipartisan dismissal petition release materials related to the case of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
