Federal prosecutors in Illinois said they were upholding the rule of law in October when they charged six protesters with conspiring to interfere with a federal agent after a clash outside an immigration detention center.
That felony charge could have carried years in prison for the defendants, who included a Democratic congressional candidate, a village trustee and a candidate for county office.
But in a surprise move on Wednesday, months after the end of the immigration enforcement blitz that set off the protest, prosecutors told a judge that they would dismiss the remaining felony charges and proceed with only misdemeanors.
The decision was a significant retreat in a case that had captured the attention of the Justice Department’s highest-ranking officials and brought accusations from Democrats that prosecutors were pursuing a political agenda. It was the latest of several federal prosecutions stemming from the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration in Chicago in which charges were reduced or dismissed.
“This case has cost myself, one of my closest friends, and four others immeasurable amounts of stress, money, and opportunity,” Kat Abughazaleh, one of the defendants, said on social media after the hearing.
Ms. Abughazaleh, who lost her Democratic primary for Congress last month, described the dismissal on Wednesday as “a huge win,” but noted that she was still awaiting trial on the misdemeanor charge.
Prosecutors previously dismissed all counts against two of the six defendants. They indicated on Wednesday that they would proceed with a case against the remaining four on misdemeanor counts of impeding a federal agent.
The original charges claimed that the defendants were part of a larger group that tried to block a federal agent from driving to the ICE facility on Sept. 26. The indictment claimed that members banged on the vehicle, stood in front of it, pushed against it, and damaged a side mirror and a windshield wiper.
A spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Chicago declined to comment on the decision to dismiss the felony charges.
The protest that led to the indictment was one of several tense face-offs last fall between activists and federal agents outside an immigration detention center in Broadview, Ill., a Chicago suburb.
As federal agents flooded the Chicago area, arresting hundreds of people and engaging in conduct that alarmed federal judges, many immigrants who had been detained were sent to Broadview for processing. Some of them spent days at the facility, which was designed for short stays only, and conditions were so bad that a judge ordered the government to make improvements.
Dozens and sometimes hundreds of demonstrators converged regularly outside the Broadview facility, in a crowd that often included elected officials. The small detention center, in an industrial area of a usually quiet suburb, quickly became the center of activist fury.
Some of those protesters attempted to stop government vehicles from entering or exiting the facility, while others chanted and held signs. Federal agents physically confronted and pushed many of the demonstrators, often deploying tear gas and pepper balls.
Christopher Parente, a lawyer representing Brian Straw, one of the defendants, said that he had been expecting to go to trial on the felony count. Mr. Straw is a village trustee in Oak Park, Ill.
“It was an extremely aggressive charge,” Mr. Parente said. “It didn’t make sense from the beginning.”
Mr. Parente said that the government’s prosecution had real consequences, despite the move to dismiss the felony charges.
“They silenced dissent,” he said. “In this time period for the last few months, how many people didn’t go to the protest they wanted to go to?”
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
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