Reporter pepper-sprayed, shoved at LA immigration protest

Lexis-Olivier Ray, an investigative reporter with L.A. Taco, was shoved by police and tear-gassed by federal agents while covering a protest against immigration raids in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 30, 2026.

The demonstration was part of nationwide protests that began that day and also followed similar protests in Minnesota, where federal officers had shot and killed two U.S. citizens. In LA, sweeping immigration enforcement has continued since June.

Ray told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that by the time he made his way to the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants were being held, he could already feel the tear gas in his throat and lungs. Department of Homeland Security officers were lined up in a standoff with protesters, and some of those attending the protest were throwing trash at law enforcement.

In a series of videos Ray posted on Instagram, the officers are seen showering the crowd with pepper spray, deploying tear gas and shooting pepper balls through a gate as people cough. Ray was doused with pepper spray on his arm and neck, causing severe burning that lingered for hours.

“It was certainly a very chaotic scene,” he told the Tracker. “I got hit with a significant amount of pepper spray, so I do question whether or not they were just aiming at me directly.”

Later on, the LA Police Department formed skirmish lines to control the crowd and push them further from the federal building. Ray said he was shoved multiple times by police. At one point in the video, an officer can be seen shoving Ray, who tells him that he is a member of the press. The officer repeatedly says, “Leave the area.”

“I think it was clear I was press,” he told the Tracker. “I was standing in front of them with a press badge, a shirt that said ‘press’ on it, and documenting things on my cellphone.”

Ray also mentioned that he believes he was shot with a paintball round on his backpack, which he said police are using to target and mark people for identification later on. At a protest the next day, he was struck with projectiles and threatened with arrest.

The actions of both DHS and LAPD officers on both days appeared to violate California law prohibiting law enforcement from using violent protest policing tactics with members of the press, which courts reinforced with preliminary injunctions issued to both agencies last year.

Neither agency responded to a request for comment. In a social media post on X the evening of the protest, the LAPD said it used crowd-control munitions in response to violence against officers, but it did not address the use of force against journalists.

In a Jan. 31 post on his social media platform, President Donald Trump wrote that federal agents would participate in policing protests only if requested, but that he had instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol “to be very forceful in this protection of Federal Government Property.”