{"id":448254,"date":"2026-02-04T09:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448254\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T09:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:24:09","slug":"judge-restricts-federal-use-of-tear-gas-munitions-at-portland-ice-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448254\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge restricts federal use of tear gas, munitions at Portland ICE protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge on Tuesday issued a temporary order prohibiting federal officers at Portland\u2019s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building from directing tear gas<\/a>, pepper balls, rubber bullets or other munitions at people unless they pose a direct and immediate threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court finds that the repeated shooting and teargassing of nonviolent protesters at the Portland ICE Building will likely keep recurring\u201d against protesters and journalists, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon wrote in a 22-page opinion<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He noted that the \u201cviolence\u201d by federal officers \u201cis in no way isolated,\u201d adding: \u201dSimilarly, statements made by DHS (Department of Homeland Security) officials and senior federal executives show that the culture of the agency and its employees is to celebrate violent responses over fair and diplomatic ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon\u2019s ruling came in a case filed last year <\/a>by demonstrators and freelance journalists who have accused federal officers of using excessive force against peaceful protesters outside the ICE building in the city\u2019s South Waterfront neighborhood. The property has been the focal point of protests against President Donald Trump\u2019s aggressive immigration enforcement since last June.<\/p>\n

The public interest in protecting First Amendment rights cannot be overemphasized, the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom of speech, including through political protest, is one of the chief distinctions that sets us apart from totalitarian regimes,\u201d the opinion said.<\/p>\n

The judge\u2019s order encompasses the area at and around the ICE building at South Macadam Avenue and Bancroft Street.<\/p>\n

No officer may direct or use chemical or projectile munitions, including pepper-ball or paintball guns, pepper or oleoresin capsicum spray, tear gas, flash-bang grenades or other chemical irritants, rubber bullets or other less-lethal weapons against a person unless that individual poses an \u201cimminent threat of physical harm\u201d to a law enforcement officer or someone else, the judge ordered.<\/p>\n

He also barred federal officers from firing any weapon or munition at the head, neck or torso of anyone, unless an officer is legally justified in using deadly force. <\/p>\n

And he made it clear that federal officers may not use chemical munitions or other projectiles against those alleged to have trespassed or refused to obey an officer\u2019s dispersal order at the ICE facility.<\/p>\n

Simon opened his opinion with a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a well-functioning constitutional democratic republic, free speech, courageous newsgathering, and nonviolent protest are all permitted, respected, and even celebrated,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIn an authoritarian regime, that is not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nation is now at a crossroad,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe have been here before and have previously returned to the right path, notwithstanding an occasional detour. In helping our nation find its constitutional compass, an impartial and independent judiciary operating under the rule of law has a responsibility that it may not shirk.\u201d <\/p>\n

The judge set a hearing for March 2 on the protesters\u2019 motion to turn his 14-day temporary order into a longer-lasting preliminary injunction. <\/p>\n

A U.S. Homeland Security spokesperson responded to the ruling by appearing to equate the Portland demonstrations to rioting. Portland police have declared a riot at the site only once, in mid-June, over months of protests and have criticized the federal response as overzealous and inappropriate. <\/p>\n

The demonstrations had mostly petered out until the administration tried \u2014 and failed \u2014 to send National Guard troops to the building last fall.<\/p>\n

The Homeland Security official also seemed to balk at any restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly \u2014 not rioting,\u201d Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. \u201cDHS is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.\u201d <\/p>\n

She reiterated that obstructing law enforcement officers is a federal crime and assaulting federal officers is a felony. <\/p>\n

Simon\u2019s order comes only days after federal officers fired tear gas and pepper balls and deployed flash-bang grenades into large crowds of protesters who gathered outside the ICE building. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, a union-organized \u201cLabor Against ICE\u201d rally drew thousands, including many families with children, who marched to the building around 4 p.m. and were consumed by clouds of gas, moments after 15 to 20 people crossed the building\u2019s property line and approached its security gate. <\/p>\n

The next night, federal agents deployed tear gas on a crowd after a small group of protesters pounded on the plywood sides of the ICE facility and rattled its security gate.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs in the case include Jack Dickinson, known for wearing a chicken suit with an American flag to the protests, Laurie and Richard Eckman, a Portland couple in their 80s, and freelance journalists Mason Lake and Hugo Rios. They submitted videos of the force used during the weekend.<\/p>\n

The judge said his order will not prevent officers from using \u201cproportional force,\u201d including such less-lethal weapons described in his decision, on anyone who poses an immediate threat of harm. <\/p>\n

The federal officers also will not be liable for violating his order if a protester or another person is \u201cincidentally exposed to a crowd-control device,\u201d provided that the device is deployed in a way consistent with the order.<\/p>\n

Simon last week had asked each side to negotiate a temporary agreement in lieu of a court order as he moved ahead to schedule a hearing on a preliminary motion to halt the use of chemicals and less-lethal munitions.<\/p>\n

When the parties couldn\u2019t agree, they returned Monday to argue before him.<\/p>\n

Simon\u2019s order picks up much of the proposal offered by attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, which filed the suit on behalf of the demonstrators and freelance journalists. <\/p>\n

They sought an order to prohibit Homeland Security officers from firing tear gas, flash-bang grenades, pepper balls and rubber bullets against passive demonstrators \u2014 or those trespassing or refusing to leave \u2014 unless someone poses an imminent threat. They also wanted to prevent officers from firing less-lethal munitions at people\u2019s heads or torsos.<\/p>\n

They submitted an assessment of ICE actions from former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, who described what he called a \u201cpervasive pattern\u201d of inappropriate force used by federal officers at the ICE building. <\/p>\n

Officers have failed to provide sufficient warnings before using force as required and have used force disproportionate to the danger faced, Kerlikowske said. Federal officers should not fire pepper balls or other munitions indiscriminately into crowds from the roof of the ICE building, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling affirms that, in Oregon, we still love our neighbors and believe in the power of our constitutional freedoms, including the freedoms of assembly, speech, and the press, to build a better future for all of us,\u201d said Kelly Simon, legal director of the ACLU of Oregon. She is not related to the judge.<\/p>\n

Attorney Andrew Warden of the U.S. Justice Department had argued for an order that would allow officers to deploy less-lethal munitions when \u201cobjectively reasonable and necessary,\u201d as defined by their agencies\u2019 policies and after providing a verbal warning. That would include responding to trespassers and protesters refusing to move or obey an order.<\/p>\n

Warden said the judge should address only the narrow circumstances of the five named plaintiffs. He also argued that some of the plaintiffs don\u2019t have standing to seek future relief. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the plaintiffs can only speculate that harm will occur in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To bolster his ruling, Simon cited Kerlikowske\u2019s declaration and testimony from Portland police Cmdr. Franz Schoening, who said he was \u201cstartled\u201d by some of the force he saw used by federal officers when he was a witness in a case last fall involving the threatened deployment of National Guard troops to Portland.<\/p>\n

Simon also refused to narrow his temporary order to only the people who filed the suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWere the Court only to enjoin Defendants from teargassing the named Plaintiffs, for example, airborne chemicals from Defendants\u2019 use of gas against other protestors would continue to chill Plaintiffs\u2019 First Amendment rights,\u201d Simon wrote.<\/p>\n

He also found evidence to support the claim that federal officers have engaged in retaliatory force without being held accountable for their actions. <\/p>\n

He said he has seen \u201cclear instances of excessive force,\u201d including a federal officer shoving a protester forcefully to the ground <\/a>that was captured by ICE\u2019s own security cameras. It was deemed \u201cinappropriate\u201d and \u201cnot reasonable\u201d by a Federal Protective Service deputy regional director, based on his testimony in the National Guard case in federal court in Portland last year. Yet it doesn\u2019t appear that any officer was moved off the street or faced discipline, the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than reprimanding DHS violence against protesters, senior officials have publicly condoned it,\u201d his ruling said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is more than enough evidence to show that the Plaintiffs\u2019 protected activities were at least a substantial or motivating factor in Defendants\u2019 conduct at issue,\u201d Simon wrote. \u201cThus, there also is more than enough evidence for the Court\u2019s conclusion that Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim of First Amendment retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge directed Homeland Security officials to provide a copy of his temporary restraining order or a comprehensive summary to all federal officers assigned to protect the ICE facility in Portland and then show him what they shared.<\/p>\n

Simon\u2019s order doesn\u2019t explicitly say what will happen if an officer violates it, but plaintiffs likely would return to court and ask the judge to hold officers in contempt of his order and issue specific sanctions.<\/p>\n

In 2020 during unrest after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez found Portland police in violation of his order<\/a> barring police from firing less-lethal rounds and using pepper spray on people engaged in passive resistance. <\/p>\n

As sanctions, Hernandez directed Portland police to investigate one particular officer\u2019s use of force and restricted officers with the Police Bureau\u2019s Rapid Response Team from using crowd-control launchers during protests until they completed further training and could \u201crecognize and articulate a threat without speculating and before using less-lethal force.\u201d<\/p>\n

The five who filed the ACLU suit before Simon are seeking to turn their case into a class-action challenge, but the judge hasn\u2019t formally classified it as such yet.<\/p>\n

In July 2020 amid the city\u2019s racial justice protests, Simon issued a restraining order that temporarily barred federal officers from using force, threats and dispersal orders against journalists or legal observers documenting the daily demonstrations. He extended it to a preliminary injunction, which was upheld by a federal appeals court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge on Tuesday issued a temporary order prohibiting federal officers at Portland\u2019s U.S. Immigration and Customs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,210465,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-448254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-portland-ice-protests-february-2026","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-united-states-of-america","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}