Adelita Grijalva Says She Was Pepper-Sprayed When She Showed Up at Taco Joint ICE Raid

Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and other House Democrats briefly enter the office of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) at the U.S. Capitol to demand that Grijalva be sworn in on the 14th day of a government shutdown, Oct. 14, 2025. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)

Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) posted a video to social media on Friday, in which she said ICE agents pepper-sprayed and pushed her after she identified herself as a member of Congress.

She captioned the clip, writing, “ICE just conducted a raid by Taco Giro in Tucson – a small mom-and-pop restaurant that has served our community for years. When I presented myself as a Member of Congress asking for more information, I was pushed-aside and pepper sprayed.”

“Hi, it’s Adelita Grijalva. We just came upon a community that was protecting their people. We had, I would say, maybe 40 ICE agents, most of them masked, in several vehicles that the community had stopped right here, right in the middle of the street, because they were afraid that they were taking people without due process, without any kind of notice,” began the Arizona Democrat, adding:

And so I was here. This is like the restaurant I come to literally once a week, and I was sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent, pushed around by others when I literally was not being aggressive.

I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress. So once I introduced myself, once I did, 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 gonna treat me like that, how they’re treating everybody else. So we saw it. We saw people directly sprayed, members of our press, everybody that was with me, my staff member, myself, two staff members—we have like remnants of whatever they sprayed on us. Excuse me, it’s bothering me. And I think that this is one of the problems, 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.

They’re literally disappearing people from the streets. They arrested two people. We have no idea where they’re going. And I want to thank Tucson Police Department for coming and taking care of the space, making sure that everyone was safe once ICE left, and you can see that traffic is back to normal because of them. And so they were not the aggressors here.

They arrived on the scene after ICE was already here and after there was a block in the street. So I just want to make sure that that’s really clear. I want to protect the people in this community, and that’s why I showed up. I think it’s important for me to have eyes on what’s happening here and not just have it be, you know, stories through other people. So I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything else.

Grijalva won her seat in a special election earlier in the summer and waited weeks before being seated, supposedly due to the government shutdown. She immediately became the final signature needed in the House to force GOP leadership to hold a vote on a bill releasing the Epstein Files, which has since passed the House and Senate and been signed into law.

She later posted a clip of her encounter with ICE, writing, “ICE is a lawless agency under this Administration – operating with no transparency, no accountability, and open disregard for basic due process. No family in our community should live in fear, and I will not rest until we get clear answers and accountability.”

Watch the clip above.