Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- September 13, 2025
- Targets
- Mason Lake (Independent)
- Case number
- 3:25-cv-02170
- Case status
- Ongoing
- Type of case
- Civil
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
- Equipment damaged
- Actor
- Law enforcement
Equipment Damage
A federal officer pepper-sprays a crowd outside an immigration detention center in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 13, 2025. Videographer Mason Lake had a rifle aimed at him and was hit by the spray while covering the protest, damaging his equipment.
Oregon journalists win restraining order against DHS
Journalists Mason Lake and Hugo Rios won a temporary restraining order on Feb. 3, 2026, in their federal suit against President Donald Trump, the Department of Homeland Security and its head, Kristi Noem.
In November 2025, the journalists, along with three protesters, sued the government, alleging indiscriminate, retaliatory violence by DHS agents at protests at the “Portland ICE Building.”
The February 2026 order forbids agents to use chemical or projectile munitions in the absence of imminent threat of physical harm, or to use weapons on or fire munitions at the head, neck or torso.
U.S. District Judge Michael Simon wrote in his order that the U.S. was at a “crossroads” between a “constitutional democratic republic” and an “authoritarian regime.” Simon highlighted the strength and breadth of the plaintiffs’ evidence for DHS agents’ violent conduct and retaliatory intent.
“Plaintiffs are currently suffering First Amendment chill,” Simon wrote. “Their legal injury is a complete loss of their First Amendment freedom to protest and report news at the Portland ICE Building, and this injury recurs daily.”
Rios celebrated the order, telling the ACLU of Oregon, which brought the case on behalf of the plaintiffs, “I am just one of many journalists that have been assaulted over and over again at the Portland facility since the protests began last spring.
“For freelance journalists, like myself, this is an important step to protect our lives, livelihoods, and our ability to tell the truth to the public about what is happening in our communities,” Rios said. “This administration's repeated violations of our constitutional rights have hindered our ability to share our coverage with the world for too long.”
Oregon journalist sues federal government over DHS violence at protests
Independent journalist Mason Lake filed a federal class-action lawsuit on Nov. 21, 2025, against President Donald Trump, the Department of Homeland Security and its head, Kristi Noem, alleging indiscriminate, retaliatory violence by DHS agents at protests in Portland, Oregon.
Lake, along with journalist Hugo Rios and three protesters, filed the suit on behalf of those who have reported on or attended protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, where the complaint says their First Amendment rights were violated.
DHS agents have violently targeted journalists and protesters in retaliation for reporting on and protesting against the government’s immigration policies, the plaintiffs argue.
ICE has vastly increased its deportation efforts after receiving an expansive mandate and billions of dollars from Trump; in response, protests have spread across the country, and journalists have been assaulted more than a hundred times by law enforcement while reporting on them, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
“Defendants must be enjoined from gassing, shooting, hitting and arresting peaceful Portlanders and journalists willing to document federal abuses as if they are enemy combatants,” the complaint says.
Lake was assaulted multiple times by federal agents this year while reporting on protests outside the facility. He was shot with a pepper round, targeted twice in one night with projectiles, and aimed at with a rifle and pepper-sprayed.
Independent filmmaker Mason Lake said federal agents aimed at him with a rifle, then later pepper-sprayed him and damaged his camera and microphone while he was covering an immigration enforcement protest in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 13, 2025.
Lake, a Portland-based videographer and founder of the independent outlet Channel Heed, was documenting a protest outside the nearby U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. At around 9:30 p.m., Department of Homeland Security agents aimed a rifle laser at Lake, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
“They took the time to put it right between my eyes,” he said. “I see this as an escalation of not only the threat they’re willing to reach for, but an escalation of what they know they’re able to get away with.”
Later, nearing midnight, officers were clearing the facility’s driveway to allow staff cars to exit. Video from Lake shows how they advanced on the crowd and began deploying pepper spray indiscriminately.
Lake, whose hair was soaked in pepper spray, said medics — also affected by the spray — helped him decontaminate afterward, and that he unintentionally recontaminated himself when removing his gas mask.
“My cameras and I took a full blast,” he said, noting that he was clearly marked as press with multiple badges, along with press identifiers on his vest and helmet. One camera, valued at over $700, and his microphone were both hit, and he said the gear remains chemically contaminated despite cleanup efforts.
The Tracker has documented 16 other incidents since 2020 in which Lake has reported being assaulted while covering Portland protests.
“I definitely have felt targeted,” Lake said. “They really don’t like cameras being pointed at them.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
