Documentarian hit with pepper balls, tear gas at LA immigration protest

Documentary producer Rocky Romano was hit in the leg with pepper balls and tear-gassed while covering an immigration raid protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 7, 2025.

It was one of many protests that began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around Los Angeles of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with LA law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

Romano, who was wearing visible media credentials and a helmet labeling him press, said federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security charged the group of demonstrators and press near the Metropolitan Detention Center without warning.

“They just come out super hot,” Romano, founder of LA-based production company Winters Rock Entertainment, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Romano said the crowd had thinned to around 30 people when DHS agents suddenly advanced. A tear gas canister landed at his feet, and he was struck by pepper balls just above the knee and in the upper back, leaving round bruises. In footage he shared with the Tracker, he can be heard coughing violently as tear gas fills the air.

“It was almost impossible to stay out and keep filming because the gas was insanely bad,” he said. “They’re just shooting at everybody; they’re not making any decision not to shoot the press.”

Romano, who continues to film protests, says these experiences have reshaped his sense of risk while working in the field. Weeks later, on Aug. 8, he was pushed to the ground and struck with a baton by LA police, and his camera equipment damaged.

“It definitely adds another layer of psychological fear,” he told the Tracker.

In a statement emailed June 11 to the Tracker, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin urged journalists to be cautious while covering what she characterized as “violent riots,” and added that President Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem “are committed to restoring law and order.”