Federal officers’ use of tear gas on protesters, children in Portland set to go before a judge
Protesters suing the federal government say the past weekend’s violence at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland shows the need for a judge to limit federal officers from using excessive force on nonviolent demonstrators.
Thousands of protesters turned out for a rally in Portland on Saturday to speak-out against the federal government’s immigration enforcement crackdown. Protesters, including children and elderly people, were hit by tear gas after federal law enforcement officers fired chemical munitions at a group of demonstrators blocking the immigration facility’s driveway.
Protesters try to get tear gas out of their eyes and escape the area after federal agents deployed the chemical munition on a crowd of more than a thousand demonstrators, many of whom were with local unions and included elderly people and children, in the blocks surrounding the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Jan. 31, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
On Sunday afternoon, hundreds rallied outside City Hall to demand leaders revoke ICE’s permit to operate at the South Portland facility. Protesters then marched to the ICE building where just before 7 p.m., federal officers again deployed large clouds of chemical munitions on the crowd. Tear gas filled the street. Not long after, the scent was noticeable from the Ross Island Bridge, nearly a mile away.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment about their officers’ uses of force over the weekend.
Both weekend incidents were cited in legal filings submitted Sunday night on behalf of protesters represented by the ACLU of Oregon and other lawyers. Their lawsuit asks U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon for measures that limit the response by federal agents who have used “excessive force on peaceful protesters at and around the ICE Building.”
In its filing late Sunday, the ACLU told Simon that the events at the ICE facility this weekend “follows the same pattern of retaliatory force” that protesters initially described when asking for a temporary restraining order.
During a hearing last week, Simon didn’t rule out that possibility, but said he wanted lawyers for the protesters and government to try and work out some kind of short-term agreement without a court order that would give the judge “some comfort in knowing that we have reduced the likelihood of inappropriate irreparable harm.”
Tear gas is deployed as hundreds of people protest outside of the ICE building in Portland, Jan. 31, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Sunday night’s court filing notes no agreement has so far been reached. The judge is expected to hold a hearing Monday morning.
Kelly Simon, legal director for the ACLU of Oregon, said in the filing that the federal government’s main contention is Homeland Security “expressly reserved the ability to deploy chemical munitions on protesters who were nonviolent or nonthreatening, including those who were simply trespassing or engaged in passive resistance like refusing to obey an order.”
The court filing included a sworn statement made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Gregory Bovino, explaining when federal officers can use less lethal munitions, like tear gas.
“Under CBP policy, chemical irritants may be utilized as a compliance tool on a subject offering, at a minimum, active resistance,” Bovino said last year in a different case in Los Angeles.
Bovino also noted that Border Patrol’s use of force policies require federal officers to give a verbal warning, when possible, and allow people time to comply before using force. In emails included in Sunday’s filing, attorneys with the Justice Department reflected a similar policy for DHS’s use of force.
But several people who attended the Saturday rally in Portland said in sworn declarations they did not hear any warnings from federal officers before tear gas or other chemical munitions were deployed.
“Agents from the ICE field office continually fired tear-gas canisters and deployed flash-bang grenades, which sounded like gunfire and created a thick fog,” Kimberly Nachbur said in a sworn statement, filed as part of the case.
Lucille Moody, who also attended the rally, said in a sworn court statement she did not witness any protesters posing a threat.
“I have attended protests in the past, and this was the most gas I have ever seen in my life,” Moody stated. “I could not breathe.”
Richard Eckman, who lives in the neighborhood and whose wife was seriously injured during an earlier protest, said he thought he would be safe “because it was a family-friendly event.”
“When later the gas detonated and engulfed the crowd, it caused me to choke and gag,” the 83 year-old Eckman stated. “I had difficulty breathing and seeing as I attempted to make my way toward home. Somebody provided me with water and helped me flush my eyes, which offered some temporary relief.”
A mother protects her child who had been exposed to tear gas from federal agents after they deployed the chemical munition on a crowd of more than a thousand demonstrators, many of whom were with local unions, in the blocks surrounding the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Jan. 31, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Andrew Kihn said in his declaration that he was standing near families with children at the rally, and, like others, did not hear any warnings before federal officers used tear gas.
“I was standing next to a five-year-old girl and an elderly woman in her 70’s using a walker,” he said. “I saw the 5-year-old suffering from the gas coughing so badly, dragging behind and doubling-over as they tried to leave the area.”
The woman with the walker, he said, was disoriented and struggling to navigate the crowd.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson issued a statement late Saturday lambasting federal officers’ use of force on a “peaceful daytime protest where the vast majority of those present violated no laws.”
“I share the impatience of those who demand we use every legal tool at our disposal to push back against this inexcusable, unconscionable, and unacceptable violence against our community. I share the need to act,” the mayor wrote.
Judge Simon on Friday set a three-day hearing on the protesters’ lawsuit for March 2, to hear testimony from witnesses and other evidence.
OPB’s Michelle Wiley and Gillian Flaccus contributed reporting.
