Socialist Senate Hopeful El-Sayed Dogged by Sister's Felony Anti-ICE Arrest

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is facing fresh scrutiny over his family ties after his maternal half-sister, University of Chicago professor Eman Abdelhadi, was revealed to be facing felony charges stemming from an anti-ICE protest last fall. Abdelhadi was arrested on October 3, 2025, outside the ICE detention facility in Broadview, Illinois, where demonstrations against the facility had been ongoing for months, some turning confrontational. She was charged with two counts of aggravated battery to a government employee, a Class 3 felony, after allegedly spitting on an Illinois state trooper, along with two misdemeanor counts of resisting or obstructing a peace officer.

Abdelhadi, an associate professor in the University of Chicago's Department of Comparative Human Development, has built a public profile as a far-left activist, writing and speaking extensively on gender, religion, and demography while calling for the abolition of policing and expressing sharp criticism of the university that employs her. She has also drawn attention for past remarks marking the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks, comments that have added fuel to Republican efforts to tie her activism directly to her brother's campaign. The day before her arrest, Abdelhadi appeared on a left-wing podcast defending her presence at the Broadview protests, saying she felt it was important to stand against what she described as ICE "terrorizing" the surrounding community.

El-Sayed's campaign has responded by acknowledging the relationship while distancing the candidate from his sister's rhetoric, saying he loves her but disagrees with her on a number of political positions, including foreign policy. The episode lands at a sensitive moment for El-Sayed, who is locked in a competitive general election battle against Republican Mike Rogers for one of the most closely watched Senate seats in the country, and it hands GOP strategists a fresh line of attack in a race where questions about the Democratic nominee's ideological alignment have already been a recurring theme.