National Lawyers Guild Members Win Temporary Restraining Order Against Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) In Portland, Oregon

DHS has been shooting tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets, and other "less lethal" munitions at people protesting the ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, blanketing the neighborhood in tear gas and other chemical agents, for months.

Protesters and journalists have been injured by these munitions, and DHS has targeted journalists for doing their jobs. Some of the people who have been hurt filed a Complaint in federal court, alleging that all of this violence against protesters and journalists violates the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act. Then Plaintiffs filed a Motion for Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), asking the court to tell DHS to stop shooting at people.

On February 3, 2026, Judge Michael Simon issued a ruling on the TRO, declaring that the Plaintiffs had a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim of violation of their First Amendment rights.

Portland Police Bureau Commander Franz Schoenig and Gil Kerlikowske, a former Commissioner of CBP and a former Chief of Police in Seattle, provided declarations in support of the Plaintiffs. Schoenig called DHS's actions toward protesters "startling" and a "depart[ure] from what [is]…best practice or legal" and Kerlikowske called it "a repeated pattern of excessive force," "grossly disproportionate" to the protesters' actions, "dangerous" and potentially "lethal."

What does the relief the court granted in this order look like?

DHS is prohibited from doing what they were doing which led to the lawsuit in the first place. Specifically, unless or until the court orders otherwise, DHS at the ICE building cannot:

• direct or use chemical or projectile munitions at people present at the facility, unless the person at whom the weapons are aimed poses a direct & immediate threat to law enforcement or someone else.

• fire any munitions or use any weapons at the head, neck, or torso of any person, unless the officer is legally justified in using deadly force against that person.

• target any individual with a less lethal munition, if doing so would endanger any other individual who does not pose an imminent threat of physical harm to a law enforcement officer or other person. This includes a specific prohibition on using such weapons for things like trespassing or refusal to obey a dispersal order.

The court also requires dissemination of this order to everyone who might be subject to it (i.e. everyone working at the ICE facility). This is important because that takes qualified immunity out of the equation when they inevitably violate it.

What happens next?

The TRO remains in place for 14 days, but it can be extended past that, and almost certainly will be, because the hearing on a preliminary injunction, which would continue to restrict use until the underlying case can be heard (which can take a long time) isn't until March 2, 2026, which is of course more than 14 days after the TRO went into effect.

The government cannot appeal a TRO, but it can appeal a preliminary injunction, so if an injunction is granted after hearing, either there will be a "stay" of the restrictions, meaning those restrictions go away until the appeal is decided, or the restrictions remain in place through the whole process of taking the matter to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (and possibly SCOTUS depending on what the 9th decides).

What can I do now?

Continue to speak out. Show up for your neighbors. Support the attorneys representing the Plaintiffs. Tell your local, state, and federal elected officials to take action, to restrict law enforcement, including DHS, through legislation.

You might not get what you ask for, but you never get what you don't ask for. Be creative, be loud, be bold.

And finally, take time to rest. Just as a choir takes turns breathing so a long note is sustained unbroken, resistance movements need the people in them to rest at intervals, so we don't burn out. Talk to your neighbors, visit the animal shelter, make art, turn off the internet for an entire day, read a book, visit nature. Be present in yourself now so you can show up stronger for your community later.

To read more about the case, including the Complaint and the TRO Order, visit: https://www.aclu-or.org/cases/dickinson-et-al-v-trump-et-al/