A federal judge in Oregon has issued a 14-day temporary restraining order that largely prevents federal officers from deploying tear gas, chemical agents or many projectile munitions at protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland. The order, issued Tuesday, allows such measures only when an individual poses an imminent threat of physical harm and limits shots aimed at the head, neck or torso unless deadly force would be justified.
U.S. District Judge Michael Simon framed the decision as protecting constitutional freedoms at a pivotal moment. He wrote that the nation faces a crossroads and stressed the importance of an impartial judiciary in safeguarding rights to free speech, newsgathering and nonviolent protest.
The restraining order covers a broad range of weapons often used in crowd control, including kinetic impact projectiles, pepper-ball and paintball-type launchers, oleoresin capsicum sprays, tear gas and other chemical irritants, less-lethal shotgun rounds, 40mm and 37mm launchers, and stun or flash devices.
The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists who say federal officers used chemical munitions and excessive force at demonstrations around the contested ICE facility. The complaint names the Department of Homeland Security, its leader Kristi Noem, and President Trump as defendants and alleges the federal tactics amounted to retaliation that chilled First Amendment activity.
DHS responded that its personnel “followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property,” and said the First Amendment does not protect rioting. A department spokesperson said officers are taking appropriate, constitutional steps to uphold the law and protect the public and themselves.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson praised the judge’s order, saying it validated the city’s complaints that federal agents had used excessive force against people exercising their constitutional rights.
The lawsuit recounts multiple incidents in which protesters and journalists say they were struck by chemical or less-lethal munitions. Plaintiffs include an activist who frequently attends demonstrations in a chicken costume, an elderly married couple in their 80s, and two freelance reporters.
According to the filing, 84-year-old Laurie Eckman was struck in the head by a pepper ball during an October march alongside her 83-year-old husband, bleeding and later receiving medical advice for a possible concussion. The complaint also alleges a munition hit the husband’s walker. The costumed protester says officers aimed munitions at his face respirator, his back and even at a tear-gas canister that burned a hole in his outfit. Two freelance journalists say they were clearly marked as press when hit by pepper balls and exposed to tear gas.
The plaintiffs ask the court to halt what they describe as federal officers’ practice of “gassing, shooting, hitting and arresting peaceful Portlanders and journalists”—actions they say have caused physical harm, fear of arrest and a chilling effect on speech, press and assembly.
Judges elsewhere have also been asked to limit federal crowd-control tactics amid a nationwide surge of protests tied to immigration enforcement. Courts in other states recently considered or paused similar injunctions affecting federal agents. Local officials in Portland have repeatedly called for ICE to leave the city after what they described as aggressive responses to otherwise peaceful daytime demonstrations.
The Portland protests are part of a larger wave of demonstrations in multiple cities, including Minneapolis, where confrontations involving federal agents were linked to recent deaths of two protesters named in related legal and investigative inquiries.