Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- June 13, 2025
- Targets
- Mason Lake (Independent)
- Case number
- 3:25-cv-02170
- Case status
- Ongoing
- Type of case
- Class Action
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
A federal officer looks down at protesters as munitions and pepper ball rounds are fired into the crowd outside an immigration detention center in Portland, Oregon, on June 13, 2025. Videographer Mason Lake was struck while covering the protest that day.
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 journalist Mason Lake said he was shot by federal agents with a projectile that struck his arm while he covered a protest outside an immigration detention center in Portland, Oregon, on June 13, 2025.
Lake, a Portland-based videographer and founder of the independent outlet Channel Heed, was filming a protest over the arrest of Moisés Sotelo, a Newberg business owner detained by federal immigration agents the day before. His arrest followed the detainment of at least four asylum-seekers outside a Portland courthouse after immigration hearings, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“Locals feel like someone in their community was kidnapped by the U.S. government,” Lake said. “We’re just trying to report it so that people can see what’s going on.”
At around 10 p.m., Lake was filming officers raining down crowd-control munitions on people when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot at him multiple times — despite clear press markings on his coat, helmet and belt, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
“They were aiming specifically down the barrel of my lens,” he said, adding that the round went underneath his monopod instead. “I’m fully there as press. They see me. They just want to get rid of me.”
Lake said his right arm was struck by a pepper round and believes ICE’s Special Response Team was responsible, based on uniform patches in his footage. The Tracker has documented 14 incidents since 2020 in which Lake has been assaulted while covering Portland protests.
“It’s disheartening, but I’m ready for it,” Lake said. “Don’t assume that the shield of ‘press’ will protect you right now.”
In a statement emailed 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.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
