Appeals court pauses limits on tear gas use at Portland anti-ICE protests

An appeals court paused a pair of lower court rulings in Oregon that restricted federal agents’ use of tear gas and other crowd-control munitions during protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted the Trump administration’s request for temporary administrative stays in two cases in a 2-1 ruling.

Anti-ICE demonstrators have held protests at the building since June, as part of protests across the country challenging President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Two lawsuits were filed over federal agents’ crowd control tactics — one brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists and another brought by the residents of an affordable housing complex across the street from the ICE building.

OREGON JUDGE LIMITS FEDERAL AGENTS’ TEAR GAS USE AT PORTLAND PROTESTS

Federal agents lobbed tear gas and flash bangs at protesters in front of the ICE building on Jan. 31, 2026, in Portland, Oregon. (Allison Barr/The Oregonian via AP)

The complaints argue that federal agents’ use of chemical and projectile munitions has violated the rights of plaintiffs — including a demonstrator known for wearing a chicken costume, a married couple in their 80s and two freelance journalists who said federal agents used chemical spray and projectile munitions against them.

The Department of Homeland Security has previously said that the agents have “followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property.”

Earlier this month, the federal judges in Portland overseeing the separate cases both issued preliminary injunctions limiting federal agents’ use of tear gas, pepper spray and other chemical munitions unless someone poses an imminent threat of physical harm.

The agents were also ordered not to fire munitions at the head, neck or torso “unless the officer is legally justified in using deadly force against that person” and were told not to use pepper spray against a group in an indiscriminate way that would affect bystanders. Additionally, they were told to only target people who were engaging in violent unlawful conduct or actively resisting arrest, noting that trespassing, refusing to move and refusing to obey an order to disperse are acts of passive resistance, not active resistance.

ICE agents deploy pepper balls, tear gas, and flashbang grenades as hundreds of protesters march from Portland City Hall to an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, on Feb. 1, 2026. (Sean Bascom/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Plaintiffs provided numerous videos, which were received in evidence and unambiguously show DHS officers spraying OC Spray directly into the faces of peaceful and nonviolent protesters engaged in, at most, passive resistance and discharging tear gas and firing pepper-ball munitions into crowds of peaceful and nonviolent protestors,” U.S. District Judge Michael Simon wrote in his ruling on March 9 in the case brought by the ACLU.

“Defendants’ conduct — physically harming protestors and journalists without prior dispersal warnings — is objectively chilling,” he added.

JUDGE RULES FEDERAL AGENTS MUST LIMIT TEAR GAS AT PROTESTS NEAR PORTLAND ICE BUILDING

The Ninth Circuit panel said on Wednesday that oral arguments in the two cases will be consolidated and scheduled for April 7.

Earlier this year, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson called on ICE to leave the city after federal agents deployed tear gas at a crowd of demonstrators outside the agency’s building. The mayor described the protests as peaceful and criticized federal officers’ use of pepper balls, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets.

Jack Dickinson, dressed in a chicken costume, looks to other protesters outside an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

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“Federal forces deployed heavy waves of chemical munitions, impacting a peaceful daytime protest where the vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat, and posed no danger to federal forces,” he said in a statement at the time.

“To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave,” he added, accusing federal officials of “trampling the Constitution.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.