Protesters and Journalists Challenge First Amendment Violations by Federal Forces at Portland Ice Building

November 21, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Christina Nguyen, [email protected]

Protesters and Journalists Challenge First Amendment Violations by Federal Forces at Portland Ice Building
Attorneys for the plaintiffs are petitioning a federal court to stop the government’s illegal and brutal suppression of First Amendment rights.

Portland, ORE — Today the ACLU of Oregon and its cooperating attorneys at Albies & Stark, the People’s Law Project, Leduc Montgomery, and Tonkon Torp filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump Administration on behalf of protesters and journalists in Portland to stop the Trump Administrations’ retaliatory violence against them that has been a sustained feature of the federal officers’ activities at the Portland ICE building. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of Portlanders including “the Portland Chicken”, an elderly couple, veterans, and journalists.

President Trump has been targeting Portland protests and the press since his first term. In 2020, the ACLU of Oregon filed multiple cases against the Trump Administration when federal officers working as part of “Operation Diligent Valor” came to Portland.

In early October 2025, President Trump took his ire for Portland to a new level when he falsely claimed there was a war in Portland and attempted to take control over 200 Oregon National Guard troops in order to deploy them to Portland. Federal DHS officers, including from ICE and CBP, have displayed familiar patterns of violence against protesters and journalists that they displayed in 2020: large volumes of tear gas, impact munitions peppering the crowd, dangerously striking heads and bodies, and unjustified snatch and grabs.

The Trump Administration is targeting and punishing people who disagree with the Administration's brutality or who want to tell the truth about it. In a bald display of viewpoint discrimination, the Administration and federal officers have permitted counter protesters to be present on federal property without reprisal, and have even invited sympathetic journalists inside to portray the images and narratives the Administration wishes to tell.

The lawsuit claims that the Trump Administration’s actions and policies are blatant attempts to interfere with fundamental rights enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to peaceably assemble and express disagreement with the government.

“The motivations of the Trump Administration in directing violence only at the Portlanders who oppose their policies or wish to tell the truth about their brutality is plain: punish people who do not loyally follow or comply with their inhumane policies to advance an increasingly violent and lawless agenda,” said Kelly Simon, ACLU of Oregon Legal Director.

Despite the Trump Administration's efforts to provoke a false narrative of a “war-ravaged” city, Portlanders, including the plaintiffs, have responded with Portland values: art, humor, music, and care for their neighbors. Protest expressions have included dance parties, inflatable costumes, fleece animal onesies, neon-clad aerobics classes, prayer, pizza delivery, and even knitting.

Today’s lawsuit is brought by a group of Portlanders who are journalists, veterans, grandparents, and everyday people who care about the truth and who oppose violent suppression of expression, human rights, and democracy. Plaintiffs seeking to represent a class of protesters and journalists include:

• Jack Dickinson has been regularly engaged in nonviolent protest for months at the Portland ICE building. Mr. Dickinson is also known as “the Portland Chicken” because he attends protests dressed in a yellow fleece chicken costume with an American flag draped over his shoulders.

`“For months, the people of Portland have been dealing with brutality at the hands of federal agents who are enabled by the Trump administration to believe that there will be no consequences for their actions. The use of force to chill First Amendment expression has no place in this country. Let this lawsuit be just one example that nobody, including the president, can trample our constitutional rights.”

• Laurie Eckman is an 84-year-old woman who lives with her husband, Richard Eckman, in Portland, Oregon. Mrs. Eckman lives just a few blocks from the Portland ICE building. Mrs. Eckman spontaneously decided to attend a protest that marched to the ICE building where federal agents gassed her and shot her in the head with an impact munition covered in chemical irritant.

“As a concerned community member, I decided to attend as one small way I can protest this administration’s challenges to our precious rights.. If I got shot in the head at my neighborhood protest by federal agents, then nobody is safe from reprisal. It is completely appalling and reprehensible that federal law enforcement and federal military forces are used to drive the Trump administration’s inhumane policies and practices. Immigrants make our communities strong and vibrant, and they and their families do not deserve to be targeted with violence by the federal government.”

• Richard Eckman is an 83-year-old Vietnam War Veteran from the United States Navy and a retired Major in the U.S. Army Reserve. Mr. Eckman lives with his wife, Laurie Eckman, in Portland, Oregon. Mr. Eckman spontaneously decided to attend a protest that marched to the ICE building where federal agents gassed him, hit his walker with a munition, rammed him, and shot his wife in the head.

“I’ve been to war, and there is no war in Portland. I also know that people in uniform, whether military uniforms or law enforcement uniforms, should serve the constitution, not the political agendas of any person or party. It is wrong and wasteful for federal military and law enforcement resources to be politicized and weaponized against our own people.”

• Mason Lake is a freelance video journalist and filmmaker who has covered protests in Portland since approximately 2020. He specializes in documenting protests in Portland through high-quality visual media. He extensively covered the George Floyd protests in 2020 and has attended approximately 8-9 nights of protests against DHS since June 2025.

The complaint names as defendants Donald Trump, President of the United States; Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem; and DHS.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from Albies & Stark, People’s Law Project, LeDuc Montgomery LLC, Tonkon Torp LLP, and the ACLU Foundation of Oregon.

Similar cases have been filed in Los Angeles and Chicago earlier this fall, after federal agents engaged in the same sorts of tactics against journalists and protesters in California and Illinois. As in Oregon, these cases arose amid efforts by the Trump Administration to deploy federalized local National Guard troops into the largest cities in their home states. In both cases, federal courts have entered orders to the Trump administration to stop the violence against protesters and press. The ACLU of Oregon’s 2020 case on behalf of press and legal observers has been an important decision for federal courts to look at in granting these orders.

###